Jack Miller expects KTM to “flourish” in the 2023 MotoGP season with a new engine and an injection of Ducati know-how.
The Australian’s move to the Austrian marque was announced in June last year but he is set to finally race on an RC16 this weekend in Round 1 at Portugal’s Autodromo Internacional do Algarve (‘Portimao’).
However, he is far from the only individual to make the defection from Ducati, which won the triple crown of riders’, teams’ and constructors’ championships last year.
His Crew Chief Cristhian Pupulin has followed and Alberto Giribuola has also joined KTM after filling the same role for Enea Bastianini, who has replaced Miller at the Bologna marque’s factory team.
Their arrivals follow those of Francesco Guidotti, who is Miller’s Team Manager again after holding that role at Ducati satellite outfit Pramac Racing, and Fabiano Sterlacchini, who made the switch to become Technical Director.
“I’ve jumped off one of the better bikes on the grid, if not the best bike on the grid,” said ‘Jackass’.
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“Hopping onto this project and doing what we’re doing over here has been an awesome challenge for me.
“It’s been awesome to bring over a couple of guys with me and be able to share our knowledge and to try to take the maximum out of this bike and I think it’s something that’s just going to flourish throughout the year.”
Ducati and KTM are regarded as having the fastest motorcycles in a straight line, even if Aprilia and Suzuki (which has now left the category) had closed the gap on that front.
Miller, who struggled with a difficult powertrain in the Desmosedici at the start of 2022, says the RC16’s engine is also now more user-friendly.
“We’ve got our really strong points with KTM, and the new engine package for this year seems to be a massive improvement in terms of its rideability of it and the smoothness of the power curve,” he remarked.
“We’ve made a massive step in the right direction on that front.
“I think the new package has lots of potential, it’s just managing to unlock that potential.”
The four-time MotoGP race winner has other elements to get used to, including KTM’s unique steel frame design and WP suspension.
“Using the steel chassis is a different concept,” he noted.
“It’s something that they’ve stuck to and it’s done them great things in the lower classes as well as winning multiple races in MotoGP; it’s definitely something that can work.
“Changing suspension manufacturer after so many years on the same stuff, having to learn your spring rates and what type of valving you want, and so on… It’s been busy but it’s been good, I’ve embraced the challenge. It’s been a lot of work.
“Then it was just trying to understand the philosophy of the bike and understand how the electronics work and tailor them to my needs and try to understand all that we could in the five days [of pre-season testing] that we had and make the necessary adjustments.
“We’d all like another couple more days of testing but at the end of the day you’ve got to get out there and get racing, and that’s all we’re here for.”
Miller shares the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing garage with Brad Binder, while sister team GasGas Factory Racing Tech3 is made up of Pol Espargaro and rookie Augusto Fernandez.
Practice at Portimao starts tonight (AEDT).
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