Jack Miller debunks all the myths about MotoGP

A Yamaha qualifies directly for Q2 at the Sachsenring and that, in itself, can already be considered news. The second is that it even ends up fifth in Friday Practice, and the third—indeed the most important—is who’s riding it: Jack Miller. Now out of Yamaha’s and MotoGP’s plans for next season, yet in one fell swoop able to debunk several common notions about the premier class.

In MotoGP as an “aerodynamic formula,” Jack Miller set the time that earned him fifth place in the so-called pre-qualifying with a Yamaha YZR-M1 featuring the “old” aerodynamic profile. While Fabio Quartararo is introducing the third different fairing configuration, with the boxed triple-plane, Miller flies into Q2 with the triple wing on the “mustache” fairing, essentially the same as the 2025 M1. Proof that aerodynamic developments don’t always benefit the stopwatch.

You can talk plenty about pure technical matters, but as Gino Borsoi candidly admitted, “Jack put a lot of himself into it.” The human factor prevails: someone who chose to spend four consecutive weekends on a bike and racing. Three MotoGP Grands Prix (with their Sprints) between Brno, Assen, and Sachsenring, with the grueling trip to Japan in between to take on the Suzuka 8 Hours. He finished second, teaming up with Andrea Locatelli and Katsuyuki Nakasuga on the Yamaha Factory Racing Team’s R1, delivering an excellent performance in extreme, pouring-rain conditions. Five days after the Suzuka podium, he then found himself in the MotoGP Top 5 at the Sachsenring. In short: it’s not so prohibitive to take on so many commitments and, for premier-class riders, to slot the Suzuka 8 Hours in the middle as well.

Generally speaking, these results alone would guarantee Jack Miller a spot in next year’s MotoGP, but Yamaha has other plans. “Jackass” has had his chances, racing with four different manufacturers and for two factory MotoGP teams, so a generational change (with Izan Guevara set to replace him at Prima Pramac Yamaha) makes sense. Perhaps at the worst possible moment, since Miller today has become a focused rider and, for Yamaha’s cause, essential: his work has been acknowledged in terms of feedback for the development of the YZR-M1V project, he knows how to build a team in the garage, and he even devoted time since last winter to giving Toprak Razgatlioglu a bit of “riding school.” At the very moment of his maturation, the Australian will bid farewell to MotoGP (barring sensational twists), able to pick from any offer arriving from the Superbike paddock. For that championship, this Miller would undoubtedly be a major signing.