Jack Miller aims high for 2020

Hard-charging Australian targets a factory seat and MotoGP glory in 2021

Jack Miller is part of a new wave of MotoGP riders – young, fast and unashamedly ambitious to become world champion.

But the open-minded, straighttalking Aussie is also a throwback to an older era, one before riders took lessons in ‘corporate-speak’, spent more time partying and weren’t scared of any bike – or rider. As a result, Miller has lit up the MotoGP paddock since joining the satellite Pramac Ducati squad in 2018 but knows a full factory seat is the only path to becoming a world champion.

MCN: The past couple of years you started the season with a January training block in California. Is that the plan again for 2020?

JM: Yes, off to California to get ready for the season with a mix of cycling, gym, mountain biking and motocross with the ‘O’Show’ (exAMA Supercross champ Johnny O’Mara) and Jeff Ward.

The mountain biking is interesting, a lot of hand-eye coordination, and brings some fun into the training. I will be focused on training, not a holiday, to get ready for the season.

You’re part of a wave of younger riders, 25 or under, in MotoGP, that includes Alex Rins, Maverick Viñales, Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo. What’s it like to be part of this generational change in MotoGP?

There is a big shift and it’s been building for a couple of years with a lot of new blood coming through. Guys like Cal Crutchlow, who’s good friend of mine, Rossi and Dovizioso are all getting older and they’re probably the first to say it’s not as easy as it used to be. They are working their arses off, probably harder than any time in their careers, knowing there is a new generation on the way. For 2021 there are going to be some good factory seats freed up and all of us in that younger group will be scrapping for those spots.

Anyone in that emerging group who you see as a stand-out rider, better than the others?

No, not really. We’ve all got things going for us but we are all made of the same stuff and we are all fast. We all train and race as hard as each other so no-one is a freak of nature who cannot be beaten. They are not all Marc Marquezs and we’ve seen that even Marc can be beaten.

So I don’t see a super-alien in this group of talented young guys but I think this group means an amazing future for MotoGP over the next five or six years.

Marquez is the benchmark at the moment. Do feel you can take him on in future with a full factory gig? I’m still learning but I definitely believe that I can take it to Marc and the guys up front when everything comes together. 2019 was my first year on a current factory bike and I had five podiums and probably missed a couple of chances with mechanicals. I exceeded my expectations.

For 2020 you’re on a Ducati GP20 with the Pramac team. Is a slot with the factory the target for 2021? Definitely. A factory team is the only way to win the championship and that’s what I’m aiming for.

You’re a free agent in 2021 so will you be open to other offers?

For sure, I’ll consider all offers on the table.

What about if Honda came knocking again? You started in MotoGP with Honda? But in 2019 Jorge Lorenzo had a nightmare on the RC213V and retired. What do you make of the theory that the Honda is a machine that only Marquez can win on?

I rode a Honda for three years and the bikes I had were not as good as the factory bike Lorenzo had, I can tell you that for free. I have no doubt I’d be able to switch bikes. On the flight from Japan to Australia last October I sat next to

Ramon Aurin – my Honda crew chief in 2017 – and he told me 120% I could ride the current Honda. It’s completely different from the bike I was on. So if HRC came knocking then it’d be difficult to say ‘No’. Jorge started getting comfortable and winning on the Ducati and then decided ‘OK, I’ll go through all that again with the Honda’. So a lot of it was self-inflicted.

The Honda is a different bike, you’ve got to brake hard and pick it up and get out of the corner quick. You don’t carry corner speed like a Yamaha.

It seemed like when Jorge got comfortable and tried to use his classic style - a lot of lean angle, a lot of corner speed - the bike went away on him.

Even Mick Doohan has said that this is the inheritance of Honda, the history of their GP bikes is they don’t carry corner speed.

So Lorenzo’s 2019 problems and Marquez’s domination on the Honda wouldn’t worry you if you got the chance?

Not at all. If that bike is such an animal how come Dani Pedrosa who weighed 48 kilogrammes was so fast and won races on it?

Assessing your 2019 season with the Pramac squad, what was the main thing you learnt riding a current Ducati with factory support for the first time?

Patience. Learning to understand race craft and manage the tyres was a big thing. When you are on a slower bike you’re constantly on the ragged edge just trying to stay with the front guys. But when you’ve got the same bike as the factory guys you can be smoother and more consistent with a lot more to give at the end of the race.

Why should Ducati hire you for the factory team in 2021?

I’m young, hungry and want to be the best. I’ll be 25 next year so have age on my side. I’ve a lot of self-belief that one day I’ll be in a factory team.

And what’s the funniest thing you saw in 2019?

The taxman chasing Lorenzo in the motorhome area in Barcelona! And probably watching Hooky [MotoE rider Josh Hook] slamming a tyre wall and Fabio [Quartararo] high-siding at the kart track near Andorra. These are the mini GPs we have when we are not at a grand prix, riding the little 190cc bikes.

‘For 2021 there are going to be some good factory seats freed up’

‘I definitely believe I can take it to Marc’

‘I’m young, hungry & want to be the best’

‘A factory team is the only way to win the championship’