Pramac Racing has announced the acquisition of Jack Miller to complete its 2025 rider line-up, with the four-time MotoGP race winner signing a one-year deal.

Miller will accompany Miguel Oliveira in a complete shakeup to Pramac’s 2025 rider line-up following the departures of the incumbent riders Jorge Martin and Franco Morbidelli.

Earlier in the 2024 season Miller was informed by KTM not to talk to other manufacturers as it had planned to keep him in the KTM stable.

KTM performed a U-turn and decided as part of a rider shuffle that included rookie sensation Pedro Acosta earning a promotion to the factory team, leaving Miller with an option of securing a deal with the Tech3 satellite team.

KTM acted swiftly in signing Maverick Vinales from Aprilia and Enea Bastianini from the factory Ducati for Tech.

Pramac will become Yamaha’s satellite team in 2025 after signing a long-term deal with the Japanese manufacturer, after ending a two-decade-long affiliation with Ducati.

Miller has ridden on a Honda, Ducati and KTM in his 10-year tenure in MotoGP which Pramac believe will stand the team in good stead heading into its new era.

The acquisition of Miller completes the rider line-up for the 2025 MotoGP season.

“We are happy to announce that Jack is joining Prima Pramac Racing’s line-up, and we warmly welcome him to the Yamaha MotoGP group,” said Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis.

“With 10 years of experience in the MotoGP class with three different manufacturers, Jack will be a valuable asset for Yamaha. His speed, knowledge, work ethic, and team spirit will be invaluable to our project as we plan to improve the performance of the M1 in 2025 and beyond.

“Yamaha will be supporting him in every way they can.”

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Jack Miller has revealed that KTM told him “don’t talk to anybody” about a 2025 MotoGP move “because we want to keep you” before telling him he would be dropped.

Pedro Acosta’s starring rookie term earned him a promotion to the factory team in 2025 next to Brad Binder, putting Miller’s position within KTM in a precarious place.

Rumours circulated that the Australian would be demoted to the satellite Tech3 GasGas outfit, and before the Dutch Grand Prix, he was told KTM wanted to retain him.

“I was surprised, because last I heard was ‘don’t bother talking to anybody because we want to keep you in the family’ and then you get a phone call three hours before the press release gets launched saying that you’re not getting a contract,” Miller told the media prior to the Assen weekend.

“So, yeah, I was surprised. To say the least. But it is what it is. But as I said to them, I didn’t come to this project to be in and out in two years.

“I left probably the most competitive bike on the grid to come over here and try and bring my knowledge.

“And I feel like last year, what we were able to bring already to improve the bike to a certain level was a big addition.”

Miller has endured a challenging campaign to date with 27 points from the opening seven rounds this season seeing him languish down in 16th spot in the standings.

KTM has decided that a revised line-up for 2025 was the right choice, with the Austrian outfit obtaining Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini on multi-term contracts.

Miller has divulged that he has options elsewhere, with reports linking him to Gresini Ducati, Honda and even Pramac should an engine deal with Yamaha materialise.

“At the moment, it’s all been talk,” he said. “So, it’s about weighing up what I want, what the project has to offer in terms of obviously going to a Ducati is very, very interesting because I know the bike very well, I know the structure very well.

“I have no doubts I can get back on that bike and be inside the top five almost instantly. But a lot of things are changing in MotoGP come ’27, and working on a project and looking for a long-term home to finish out my last strong years in MotoGP and working towards a common goal – which I thought we had, but we didn’t.

“So, that’s one of those things we need to weigh up. I have money in my account, I’m very fortunate. So it’s not about that. It’s what I want for my career.”

Regarding a potential test rider role in MotoGP, Miller retorted: “For the moment, I can’t even put myself in that realm because I don’t think of myself as a test rider.

“I enjoy this too much, I enjoy racing. I don’t enjoy the testing side of it, I do it because I enjoy the work because you are working towards a goal.

“But in terms of just going round and round in circles on a motorcycle doesn’t excite me.

“Going out there and competing with 22 other bikes is what I’m here for. Who knows for the future, but all I want to do is race.”

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Jack Miller believes the 2024 MotoGP calendar disordering is “getting old” amid three notable calendar changes that have occurred during the first half of the season.

This campaign has seen Dorma make multiple changes to the roster, with the initial alteration seeing the Argentinian Grand Prix end up cancelled over funding issues.

Extreme flooding in the area then postponed the Kazakhstan race, but the Indian Grand Prix’s cancellation offered Sokol International Racetrack with another opening.

Miller, who will vacate his place with the works KTM squad next season, has contended that the constant calendar tweaks cause more harm than good for the series.

“It’s been the last few years we’ve had it disrupted, which is getting old,” Miller told Autosport.

“Both for us as a rider and also I think as fans. You’re expecting X amount of grands prix and then having two or three being kicked off the championship.

“So, fingers crossed that’s the end of it but we’ll wait and see.”

However, the Australian admitted that it doesn’t impact his or other MotoGP riders’ groundwork and preparations building up to race weekends.

“I’m just trying to take it a race at a time,” he added.

“That’s all we can do. If I was further up in the points, then maybe you would be wanting more or wanting less, I don’t know.

“It’s hard to say from my position, but at this point and time it hasn’t really affected me all that much.

“You do set a plan out at the beginning of the year of the grands prix, and that’s what you’re training towards and it’s not just been this year.”

The Kazakhstan GP postponement has led to a three-week interruption following its last outing in Mugello, with the next race in Assen dated for the end of this month.

The 2024 MotoGP schedule sees Assen and Sachsenring held back-to-back before the annual summer three-week break and then Silverstone and the 75th anniversary.

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Jack Miller admitted that he was “really struggling to run the pace” on his MotoGP KTM bike at the French Grand Prix, labelling his retirement as “a real head-scratcher”.

Miller was running in the lower end of the points, before crashing out at Turn 11 with 11 laps to go.

KTM had its worst weekend of the 2024 season, with rookie Pedro Acosta also falling off his bike early on.

Miller was not only concerned about his crash, but more so about his lack of race pace considering his speed in warm-up earlier in the day.

“I struggled to stay in the [1m]31s, struggled to do any 31s,” he said (via Autosport).

“This morning on a used tyre [in warm-up], it felt mega, I was able to run 31s consistently by myself. But come race time, I’m really struggling to run the pace.

“The bike started feeling better and better as the race went on.

“I didn’t do anything different [where I crashed], braked at the same spot. I was 1km/h faster than the lap before, but not the fastest I’ve gone in there – straight up and down she locked.

“A real head-scratcher just trying to understand what we can do differently to try and turn the ship around. But it’s a difficult moment for sure.”

Miller explained he was in good stead in long runs during practice and warm-up with the race setup without traffic, but was unable to transfer that same speed during the race while being in the mix.

The Australian was unable to provide any reasoning for this difference, but believes he and KTM need to work together to find the solution to turn their fortunes around.

“Saturday afternoon [in sprint] I really struggled a lot on Turn 1 and [it was the] same today.

“And this morning, it was no issue whatsoever at Turn 1 and the same throughout the rest of the weekend. I literally said on Friday that it’s the most stable and the most comfortable the bike’s ever felt at Turn 1. Might have jinxed myself.

“Just trying to understand what exactly it is, how we can try to run the pace when the other bikes are around and when we are around the other boys because I’m really suffering.

“I was able to do good lap times alone and stay really consistent in the 31s. Literally in that FP3 it felt like I could ride around smoking a cigarette and doing it.

“Trying to work it out, trying to understand what I need to do differently. I’ve been an open book this year and trying to do everything I can and it will turn, but it’s just a matter of when.”

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KTM rider Jack Miller was left feeling “quite dumbfounded” after an incident with Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli forced them to retire from the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix.

Miller has endured a difficult start to 2024 with one top-five finish, whereas team-mate Brad Binder and rookie GasGas KTM rider Pedro Acosta have both featured on the rostrum.

Morbidelli heaped further misery upon Miller with an ambitious Turn 5 move on Lap 17 of the Spanish GP that resulted in both riders hitting the deck.

Miller gave further context to Autosport post-race on the accident which was deemed a racing incident by Freddie Spencer’s FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel.

“When Pedro [Acosta] came past, I tried to hook the claws in him, just to understand what he is doing differently, try and learn as much as possible,” said the 29-year-old.

“Unfortunately that got cut short when Franky decided he wanted to make a gap when there was no room.

“It resulted in us both having an early shower. So not the way we wanted to end the day.

“I don’t know if I’ve run over a black cat or we fell under a ladder or something at the minute, but we are struggling to get the bloody thing luck turning our way. But we will stick with it, we’ll keep on the programme.”

In the heat of the moment, Miller ran over to Morbidelli shortly after the coming together to give the Italian a piece of his mind, which drew further comment by the stewards.

“I didn’t really get a telling off,” he said. “I got a telling off more for my actions afterward. But I didn’t hit him, I didn’t punch him or anything like that.

“I was obviously crashed [into] and then Franky told me in the gravel what I do to him yesterday [Saturday].

“I was quite dumbfounded because I said, ‘look, I crashed out of the f*****g first lap yesterday so I don’t know what I could have done. I don’t know if he had me confused with somebody else.

“Anyway, it’s not what we wanted.”

Morbidelli explained that he wasn’t attempting to overtake Miller into Turn 5, more so that the contact was due to both rider’s racing lines once they were merged into the corner.

“It was an unfortunate race incident,” he said. “Jack was doing a different line. It was at the end of the race, but I was quite a bit faster than him. But I couldn’t pass him because Jack was braking very fast.

“In that corner, I didn’t even want to pass him, but the way he made the line. I thought I would go on for mine. In the end, we had contact. It was a shame.

When asked if he and Miller restored harmony following the race, the Italian replied: “The race was not going well for either of us, after you end up on the gravel it’s okay to be angry.”

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Jack Miller swept Friday proceedings at Le Mans as he posted the fastest time of the weekend in the dying seconds of FP2, with Fabio Quartararo left to contest Q1.  

With heavy clouds having arrived at the venue during the afternoon, the resulting lower temperatures proved tricky for the riders in the early stages of the outing as many a crash occurred – with seven separate pilots all suffering spills by losing the front of their machines, with several others surviving scary moments.

Marco Bezzecchi was the only man to improve his best effort in the early part of the session, the Italian moving his VR46 Ducati up into third overall before as the bulk of the field focussed on building up their information banks for the weekend ahead.

It would be KTM’s Brad Binder that signified the start of the battle for a guaranteed Q2 spot though as he banged in the fastest lap of the weekend – a 1:31.352s – to move to the head of the times, though team-mate Miller swiftly dumped him back to second.

Bezzecchi as well as Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro also took turns to lead the time sheets as the clock ticked down, though Miller ultimately had a little more left in the locker to secure the scratch time on a 1:30.950s.

Espargaro’s best gambit left him second overall and 0.119s adrift of the Aussie, while Bezzecchi’s latest tour meant he ended the day third fastest.

Jorge Martin took fourth on his Pramac Ducati ahead of team-mate Johann Zarco, who just managed to slot into the top ten towards the end.

Maverick Vinales snagged sixth for Aprilia ahead of the sister KTM of Binder, while Marc Marquez enjoyed a competitive day for Honda to secure an automatic pole shootout berth with the eighth best time – despite the Spaniard suffering his second crash of the day late on entry to Turn 7.

Francesco Bagnaia narrowly secured his own pathway to Q2 with the ninth best time, with Alex Marquez the final man safe from Q1 by just 0.003s over Luca Marini, who will have to battle the likes of Quartararo and Joan Mir for the final two pole shootout places on Saturday morning.

Quartararo was keen to bounce back following a tough Spanish outing at his home encounter, though once again the Yamaha lacked the one-lap performance to fight with the front-runners to leave him only 12^th – a full 0.700s away from Miller’s benchmark.

Mir narrowly got the better of fellow Honda racer Alex Rins for 13^th, while Augusto Fernandez again showed encouraging speed with the 15^th best effort just clear of LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and the other Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli.

Danilo Petrucci ended his first day back on a Ducati MotoGP prototype for over two years in 19^th overall, ahead of fellow stand-in riders Lorenzo Savadori and Jonas Folger but two seconds down on Miller’s best time.

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Jack Miller escaped the blocks fastest to lead the opening practice session for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans by 0.095s over VR46’s Luca Marini.  

Times tumbled continuously at a cool Le Mans venue as the riders first hit the tarmac for the weekend, though Marc Marquez quickly found himself on the back foot on his MotoGP return after crashing his Honda at Turn 11 in the early stages of the outing – though fortunately he walked away unhurt.

Improvements started to come thick and fast as the session raced towards its conclusion, with no less than seven different riders taking turns at the peak of the time sheets across the closing minutes – with Miller the man to remain there as the chequered flag was shown with a 1:31.449s.

The KTM racer led Marini by just under a tenth-of-a-second, while Binder backed up his team-mate’s impressive early pace with a run to third on the sister factory KTM.

Home hero Johann Zarco ended up fourth quickest for Pramac Ducati ahead of the Gresini-run Desmosedici of Alex Marquez, with Joan Mir ending FP1 and encouraging sixth fastest on the first of the factory Honda entries.

Aleix Espargaro inserted his Aprilia up into seventh at the death just clear of the other VR46 machine of Marco Bezzecchi, while Maverick Vinales and reigning premier class world champion Francesco Bagnaia rounded off the top ten for Aprilia and Ducati respectively.

MotoGP world champion of 2021 Fabio Quartararo ended up 11^th overall having been shuffled down the pack as a result of the flurry of late improvements, as was the returning Marquez who ended up 12^th fastest having re-joined the fray on his second RC213-V – Marquez having tested Honda’s latest chassis as well as Kalex’s new chassis over the course of the session.

Augusto Fernandez ended up a solid 14^th on his GasGas entry just ahead of Takaaki Nakagami, who was forced to prioritise his spare Honda after his other machine suffered an engine blow up at the mid-point of FP1.

Jorge Martin saw a late improvement go begging after making a mistake on his fastest tour – leaving him 16^th as a result – while Ducati stand-in Danilo Petrucci ended up 19^th just ahead of RNF man Lorenzo Savadori, who is replacing Miguel Oliveira at the squad this weekend.     

The RNF outfit looks to be running without either of its primary riders at Le Mans after Raul Fernandez failed to post a representative time as he continues to struggle with an injured arm, the Spaniard likely to call it quits with a view to returning at Mugello next time out.

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A defiant Jack Miller was left thrilled to prove his doubters wrong to secure his first MotoGP podium finish with KTM in only his fourth event with the Austrian manufacturer.

The Aussie elected to switch from the Ducati camp to the factory KTM team after being replaced in Ducati’s official operation by Enea Bastianini for 2023, a move seen by many as a step down for Miller after KTM struggled to fight towards the front last season.

The marque has managed to make a major step forward with the ’23 iteration of its RC16 challenger though, with Brad Binder having secured a pair of sprint race wins as well as the runners-up finish in the Spanish Grand Prix, with Miller following his team-mate home at Jerez in third – leaving the duo third and fourth in the riders standings respectively.

Miller admitted post-race that he didn’t expect his first rostrum with KTM to “happen this quickly”, and that he is happy the “risk” he took on himself to move to the organisation has come off – the four-time premier class race winner declaring “F you to the doubters.”

“I’m having a ball (at KTM), I love this stuff and a lot of guys in this championship complain about the bike they’re on and how other bikes are better and so on, if you really want it go out and do it it’s not difficult,” said Miller.

“I wasn’t gonna stick around where I was because I wasn’t feeling comfortable, I needed a new challenge.

“I took a risk on myself, people do it in business all the time and I trust in myself and my ability, and it feels mega when it comes off so I can’t thank KTM enough for giving me the opportunity, and F you to the doubters because I love it when it comes off.   

“I didn’t think it (podium) would happen this quickly, people said yesterday the KTM couldn’t slide around like that and stay there but myself and Brad proved that this wasn’t the case.”

Miller conceded that he was powerless to do anything about Spanish GP victor Francesco Bagnaia and Binder in the closing stages of the encounter, though was left satisfied with the overall level of KTM across the event as the brands test rider Dani Pedrosa also possessed top-six level pace all weekend despite it being his first in two years.

“The boys rode a fantastic race, it was a long gruelling one trying to manage the tyres and the front end,” continued Miller.

“Brad (Binder) rode phenomenally and I’m gutted for him because to lead that many laps and not come away with the big one is tough, but he was great and didn’t put a foot wrong all race, as did Pecco who was up and down like a yo-yo during the race with his penalty an everything.

“It’s been an awesome weekend for the team with Dani (Pedrosa) leading FP1, so to be at this level at round four is really nice.”

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Jack Miller ended Friday a shock fastest for KTM after the Aussie banged in a storming gambit in the closing stages of FP2, while Pol Espargaro suffered a nasty crash.

The session suffered two separate red flag stoppages, the second of which was the result of GasGas rider Espargaro suffering a heavy crash at Turn 9 – forcing the outing to be stopped for some time while medical staff attended to the Spaniard.

He was eventually brought to the medical centre in a conscious state before being transported to the local Faro hospital for further checks – Espargaro being initially diagnosed with a lung contusion as well as spinal trauma, though MotoGP medical director Dr Angel Charte insisted that he will “recover well.”

Meanwhile Fabio Quartararo had managed to shoot to the top of the times prior to the first lengthy red flag period, which came about as a result of a power outage at the track that knocked out the timing and scoring facilities, the session resuming once again after just over 20 minutes.

Times continued to fall after FP2 got back underway, with Marc Marquez first inserting his Honda to the top of the times with a 1:38.665s, though his time was swiftly beaten by Pramac’s Jorge Martin and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

The final time attack in Friday’s concluding session – which unlike in past seasons now decides who will progress directly to Q2 in Saturday morning’s qualifying session – began in earnest following the end of the second red flag period, with Miller ultimately coming out in top with a 1:37.709s.

This was unexpected given KTM’s struggles across testing, Miller heading Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales by just 0.037s in the end.

Reigning MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia meanwhile ended Friday as the top Ducati rider in third overall, the Italian facing a 0.147s deficit to Miller, while Luca Marini and Martin completed the top five on their Ducati’s run by the VR46 and Pramac squad’s respectively.

Fabio Quartararo ensured a spot in the pole position shootout with the sixth best effort, the Frenchman lapping just over three-tenths-of-a-second down on Miller’s benchmark to head countryman Johann Zarco and the sister VR46 entry of Marco Bezzecchi.

Aleix Espargaro held onto ninth on the other factory Aprilia, with Enea Bastianini snatching the final guaranteed Q2 spot from Alex Marquez by just over a tenth.

Honda’s day took a turn for the worse following an encouraging second fastest time for Joan Mir in FP1, the 2020 MotoGP world champion the fastest of the Japanese manufacturers pilots in 12^th just ahead of LCR’s Alex Rins and factory team-mate Marc Marquez, who saw his top ten chances ended with a crash at the end of the session while shadowing Quartararo.

Rookie Augusto Fernandez continued to show well in 16^th on the sole remaining GasGas machine, while home hero Miguel Oliveira was only 19^th after suffering a fearsome crash of his own at the same bend as Espargaro – the RNF Aprilia man high-siding violently but luckily walking away without injury.   

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KTM MotoGP Team Manager Francesco Guidotti says that the manufacturer has “very good expectations” for the 2023 season following test rider Dani Pedrosa’s comments after the Sepang shakedown test.

The Austrian brand struggled for outright speed during the lions-share of the ’22 term, with the bulk of the marque’s issues stemming from its RC16 machine lacking grip on new tyres in qualifying and thus meaning its riders more often than not started races well outside the top ten.

The bike’s strong race performance allowed factory riders Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira to usually move forward on Sunday’s though, the latter scoring a pair of impressive wins in inclement conditions while the former ended the year sixth overall having scored a trio of dry-weather rostrums.

Guidotti reckons that KTM has made good ground with the RC16 over the winter, a theory he says was backed up by the comments from Pedrosa’s comments during the shakedown test at the Sepang International Circuit last weekend, leaving the Italian “pretty confident” the RC16 would be featuring towards the front of the field more frequently this year.

“Our three days testing here with Dani (Pedrosa) was really productive, we worked all around the bike,” said Guidotti.  

“Aerodynamics, frame, electronics and the engine so we have a very good expectation following Dani’s comments across the last few days, but everything has to be confirmed by the factory riders.

“We are however pretty confident that we will get out something better than we had last year.”

Guidotti added that Binder would be KTM’s “first reference” in the upcoming three-day MotoGP pre-season test at the Sepang venue in Malaysia, the South African the only one of the brand’s four ’23 riders to campaign the machine last season.

“He (Brad Binder) is the first reference, but of course everybody has to try,” continued Guidotti.

“He knows the bike very well and is the only one to have used the KTM last year so for sure he’ll be the first to try the highest priority things, but then we need to double check with Jack (Miller) and Pol (Espargaro).

“We’ll still give some more time to Augusto (Fernandez) to get the right confidence with the bike and new category, but the other three riders will be mainly testing the new parts starting with Brad.”

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