Jack Miller says the injury to MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has “opened the door” for a new winner this year and has changed his approach to races.
Marquez has won the last four championships, and six of the seven titles since he came to MotoGP in 2013.
He broke his arm in the first race of the season in July and could miss the rest of the year.
“It will be nice to see someone else’s name up on that trophy,” Australian rider Miller, 25, told BBC Sport.
“Marc not being out there is of course a massive shame, and I’m not saying that Marc would have won all the races, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s opened doors for guys to have the opportunity to win.”
Pramac Ducati rider Miller is in third place in the standings after five races, 14 points behind leader Fabio Quartararo of Yamaha.
Quartararo and KTM riders Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira have all picked up their first wins in the premier GP class in Marquez’s absence.
“It has helped riders to grow some confidence,” Miller said. “I definitely have, you approach the weekend differently.
“You’re not going in thinking ‘we’ll have a wobble around and see where we are’, you go with a clear goal in mind and an achievable goal to try and challenge for the victory.
| Fabio Quartararo (Fra) | 70 points |
| Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) | 67 |
| Jack Miller (Aus) | 56 |
| Brad Binder (SA) | 49 |
| Maverick Vinales (Spa) | 48 |
“In the past, Marc has always had something special. We all saw how strong he was before his crash, you’d be stupid not to say so.
“Jorge [Lorenzo] is the only guy to win a title in the era of Marquez so it will be nice to see someone else’s name up on that trophy. Hopefully we will be able to do the best we can to challenge this thing to the end.”
‘One of the last untouched sports’
Miller and the rest of the grid will next line up in Misano on 13 September after back-to-back races in Austria which featured some huge accidents.
Yamaha duo Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi were very lucky not to be hit by loose bikes in one crash – but Miller says the sport remains as safe as it can be.
“The fact that we walked away with nobody seriously injured is a positive but for sure there are ways to make that track [in Austria] safer,” he added.
“But it was through blind luck. Motorcycle racing is dangerous, we all know that.
“That’s one of the beauties of it, it’s one of the last untouched sports. The organisers and the riders are all doing the best we can to make it as safe as we can.
“We had two massive crashes in Austria, the least safe place on the calendar, every straight you are travelling at 300kph-plus, it’s always going to be hairy.
“The tracks are as safe as we can get them, but everyone is always trying to go faster.”