“People forget it very quickly around here, you’re only as good as your last race”

2023-08-13 12:50:17

Jack Miller’s time at Ducati was discreet, despite having one of the fastest bikes on the entire grid. He himself admits to Crash what is the “pilot who is most doubted on the grid”. However, his landing at KTM was very different, with an RC16 with winning wood.

“There were definitely some negative comments after signing,” says Miller, who can now say that “I’ve been able to silence some of those criticsto show them that these guys can ride a really good bike and that I’m not a bad rider that can trade it in for a totally different kind of bike, it’s great, he was rejoicing.

Miller justifies that “when I got on the Ducati in 2018, it was not the best bike then. People forget real quick around here you’re only as good as your last run it’s a cutthroat business”, mentions the pilot, who explains that “Ducati was nowhere near where it is now when I first signed with them.”

It reveals now also that by then “I had an offer to stay at Honda and I considered it, but I saw the future of Ducati and the work with Gigi, I could see an uptrend”.

In general, Miller criticizes that “The perception in this paddock can be strange, I don’t know, it’s like they see you as a stranger here or what. But if, they definitely doubt you more than others”explaining that “there are many factors. If it can also be Australian or English, not Italian, Spanish or whatever. There are definitely guys who have to prove themselves more than others here.”

On his signing for KTM not even he himself knows if “It’s intuition or whatever, but I saw some guys I already knew [de Ducati] here [en KTM]in addition to the guys who were bringing and what they were putting into the projectMiller explained.

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“So I saw all that and I thought ‘now is the time, it’s now or never.‘” and he did. “I could have signed a few years ago with KTM, but I didn’t because it didn’t seem right to me”.

In addition, his signing was a ‘said and done’: ““I told Aki Ajo ‘you can start talking and see if they are interested’. As soon as he said they were interested, I asked him ‘Where’s the paper? I’m going to sign. I had already made up my mind, ”she narrates.