Jack Miller’s contract year at KTM, Pedro Acosta’s rookie season, research and development, preseason testing

Jack Miller will set his sights on becoming the first rider of the MotoGP era to win with three different manufacturers when he lines up on the grid for his final contracted season with KTM.

Miller ended his first season with KTM in the gravel after a heartbreaking crash from the lead of the Valencia Grand Prix on lap 19 of 27.

Had he taken the chequered flag, he would have become the first rider in MotoGP and just the fifth in grand prix racing history to win races with three different manufacturers.

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The magic triple has been achieved by only four people — Mike Hailwood, Randy Mamola, Eddie Lawson and Loris Capirossi — but none has done so entirely in the modern MotoGP era.

Having won races with Honda and Ducati, Miller said his failure to win in his first campaign with KTM has made him only more determined to rewrite the history book.

“It was on the cards — that was my main goal — in 2023 and it didn’t come true,” he said. “I got close there on the last day, but it wasn’t to be.

“I think it’s just made me a little more hungry for this year.

“It’s just finding that confidence, which is a massive thing in our game — confidence and understanding and trusting in your ability and in your machine.

“For sure there are days sometimes when you’re struggling, that you start to doubt yourself or a lot of questions start coming in your head, but the end of 2023, the way it ended, left me so hungry throughout this winter to come back and try and achieve that goal that I set last year and try to become the first to win on three and of course the third to win on a KTM.”

Only Maverick Viñales could beat him to the feat this season, the Aprilia rider having previously won with Suzuka and Yamaha.

Miller’s mission comes in a make-or-break contract year.

Of the grid’s 22 riders, 19 are also unsigned for 2025. Among those potentially searching for new seats next year are Marc Márquez, Fabio Quartararo and vanquished 2023 title contender Jorge Martin.

Though KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer recently said he wasn’t contemplating anything other than retaining his four riders across the factory team and the Gas Gas satellite squad, Miller is expected to come under pressure internally from rookie superstar Pedro Acosta.

The 19-year-old Spanish sensation is widely regarded as motorcycle racing’s next great champion in the mould of six-time champion Márquez. The reigning Moto2 champion’s fast and composed first pre-season testing campaign with Gas Gas did nothing to dispel that notion.

With an extremely fluid rider market on the cards, a fast-starting Acosta would be well placed to capitalise on any Miller missteps.

“It’s a kind of pressure that comes to everyone a little bit too soon,” KTM team manager Guidotti told the MotoGP website.

“We have to make decisions in the first part of the season, and sometimes this is not the best for the riders and also for us that we have to make a decision after a few races.

“Jack, like almost all of the grid, is on the market. Also for him it can be an opportunity. It depends how the rider feels this pressure.

“I don’t think he wants to look around. He’s fully committed to staying with us, he likes being here so much, so I’d like to think that he feels the pressure to show everybody, to show himself, the potential.”

Miller arrived at KTM as a key piece of the manufacturer’s project to turn the RC16 into a winner. His development nous was highly prized and credited for last year’s big step forward in competitiveness.

But the Townsville native suffered a dip in competitiveness through the middle of the season that left him languishing for pace and bereft of opportunities to claim his fifth premier-class victory.

The 29-year-old put his slump down to misdirected set-up in his year-long process to fully match himself to his new bike, something he said experience would help him to overcome in his second campaign.

“It’s easy to be distracted or lose your way a little bit because there are so many moving parts in the whole project and the whole process,” he said. “It is kind of hard to manage it all and trying to focus on what is important and where your attention needs to lie.

“But through my years of experience and so on — I mean, not to say that I don’t still make mistakes or I don’t still lose focus or lose track; I’d be lying — it definitely helps.

“I definitely feel every year I get better at focusing my energy into the things that matter and not so much in the things that don’t.”

Speaking after the first of two pre-season tests, Miller was optimistic his sophomore KTM campaign could build on the strong phases of 2023.

“The bike is working pretty well,” he said. “I’m really happy with the improvements we’ve made throughout the winter.

“I feel more confident going into racing this year than I did last year.

“We were able to iron out some of the things that we needed to, to understand the package going forward.”

MotoGP’s second pre-season test takes place next week in Qatar on 19 and 20 February.