Jack Miller is the man of the moment. The two victories in a row at Jerez and Le Mans gave him the jump he was missing in MotoGP. A journey that began a long time ago, in 2015 when the Australian left Moto3 to enter the premier class without going through Moto2. It was then HRC bosses Shuhei Nakamoto and Livio Suppo who wanted him in Honda, and the Italian is now telling us how this crazy idea was born.
“Nakamoto and I noticed him in 2014, the year he dominated Moto3 when Alex Marquez then won the title – Suppo recalls – it seemed to us that he had a driving style that adapted well to MotoGP . There wasn’t anyone in Moto2 that we were particularly excited about, so we decided to focus on a very young rider, but with qualities that are suitable for riding a MotoGP motorcycle. “
“Bringing Miller from Moto3 to MotoGP was a risky move, but not insane”
To accept the leap out of Moto3, you have to be a little angry, were you afraid that he would say no?
“In fact, he hasn’t thought about it twice… (laughs). If he had hesitated we certainly would not have insisted, instead both he and his manager Aki Ajo were happy with the proposal. Jack was very young and having HRC offer you a 3 year contract is certainly an important opportunity. That meant we believed in him. Among other things, he had risen through the ranks, so that the offer also represented economic calming for him, which reassures one when one comes out of the lower life. I think it was a risky move, but not insane. The results that Jack has achieved not just now but generally show that we haven’t burned his career ”.
Have you ever had concerns about this decision?
“Jack has the strengths and weaknesses that he would have had if he had had a different career. There can be no counter-evidence, however he’s always been talented and if he hadn’t immediately started working on a MotoGP team that is more professional and where there is more control, it might have been more difficult for him to find his maturity. He was a hothead and he admits that because I always say he was the only driver I’ve ever fined in my 22-year career. We got to this point because I, Lucio and Nakamoto no longer knew how to make him understand that he cannot cause damage every Sunday evening (laughs) ”.
“Initially he trusted his talent too much, MotoGP made him realize that sacrifices are required”
How was Miller those years?
“He didn’t train enough at first, he trusted his talent too much. Maybe he would have lost his way with a move to Moto2, where his talent would have allowed him to go fast without doing anything. In MotoGP, he immediately collided with a very professional reality that first made it clear to him that you have to make sacrifices in order to achieve certain results.
We saw a soft side to Miller in Jerez, did you know that?
“He wears the mask of a Gascon, but enough to live because he lived in the paddock with the Crutchlow family, he was very affectionate to the child, including a big softie. He’s a very different Australian to Casey Stoner, but even Troy Bayliss or Mick Doohan can’t be the same just because they’re Australian. Jack is stubborn ”.
Was there an episode in which his stubbornness was particularly evident?
“In 2016 I worked my way to death for him, in Austria, during the tests we found that he had a broken vertebra and missed the race. I am very sensitive to this type of injury as I was very close to it Filippo Preziosi, I am very aware of the risks, but the Dorna doctors gave him the green light to race at Silverstone. I had all the examinations done and examined by different doctors who told me it was very risky, there is a great danger that he would be injured if he fell. Jack absolutely didn’t want to know and his manager didn’t help me. Whenever he went out on the track, I was scared. In Misano I had a glimpse, I went to his motorhome and said to him: ‘You say you have no problems but you drive slowly so everyone thinks you are an idiot and not that you have a bad back’. This reasoning helped him understand and I was able to convince him to stop. He is sober and like all riders is not afraid of anything ”.
“Miller was about to get lost, but he managed to get in line.”
Did you imagine Miller could get certain results this year?
“He did very good things at the end of last year and was strong in the winter tests. He was a little lost in the first two races due to his arm problems, but he was good at not panicking with such a difficult start to the championship and that too was a sign of maturity. You could see that he had a lot of talent, even when we decided to get him out of Moto3, he has developed well in recent years. Pedro Acosta, for example, is certainly a phenomenon, but to become a champion it takes a growth process, many get lost along the way. Jack was on the verge of getting lost, but he managed to get back in line and for a couple of years we could see that he was ahead. “
So it wasn’t a surprise to you?
“I would have been surprised if he hadn’t done well. As for Bagnaia, If we remember what he did with the Mahindra, then the title in Moto2 and his debut in the Sepang tests with MotoGP, I was more surprised that he was fighting than going fast. They are two very strong riders who are bringing a wave of excitement to Ducati.
“Miller and Bagnaia loved Ducati, but Quartararo is currently the strongest”
Do you like this team?
“As I said, you can see the enthusiasm. If a rider like Dovizioso stays with Ducati for many years without reaching the goal he set himself, narrowly missing out on 2017 and then two second places without a fight, it is inevitable that the team will lose confidence in the rider and vice versa. In the meantime they had become fragile in this situation, which then meant that they had a season far below their possibilities last year, in which they had a great chance for the world title. In my opinion it happened because there was this climate that they hated each other. At the moment it seems to me that Ducati is in love with its two riders and that the riders are in love with Ducati, it’s one of the things that makes the difference. From the outside, it’s easy to judge and criticize, but in today’s MotoGP where there’s a lot of catching up to do, a rider’s belief that he has the right conditions to be able to win, maybe that tithing, tithing and A, eliminates that Half, per lap that means starting in the first two rows instead of coming out of Q2.
Will this Ducati be able to repeat what you and Stoner did: win the world title?
“Actually, only Stoner did it (laughs). So far I’ve been very positive about Ducati, but if I have to be objective, Quartararo had the potential to win four of the five races so far. At Jerez he would have won without an arm problem and at Le Mans in the dry it would have been difficult to beat him. Ducati has very good title chances, but Quartararo is a little stronger at the moment. Driving twice in Austria is an advantage and Ducati has three strong riders who can take a lot of points away from Fabio on this track. Those who say having so many drivers going fast is wrong. If they weren’t on the Ducati, they’d be on a different motorcycle and you would have them as your opponents. “