Miller: KTM has best MotoGP launch devices

Jack Miller has suggested that KTM may have the best launch devices in MotoGP, as he and team-mate Brad Binder continue to make good starts.

Ducati pioneered the rear holeshot device around five years ago, with a system which enhanced traction by locking down the rear end of the motorcycle until a significant brake application.

Miller was a beneficiary given he was contracted to the Bologna marque during that period, and while he professes to be a good starter, he also mused that his new employer might now have the edge.

Asked why the KTM RC16s are so good off the line, he replied, “I wouldn’t tell you that because then everyone knows.

“But, I mean, I’ve had good starts my whole grand prix career.

“On the Ducati, everybody said it was the Ducati launch device but now it seems like the Ducati launch devices are complaining and the KTM ones are the best ones.

“I mean, Brad and I both were getting off the line pretty well in Jerez.

“We had a good chance to show it with four starts over the weekend, but fingers crossed, no red flags this weekend and we only have to do two of those.”

KTM is second to Ducati in the constructors’ championship and its factory squad is two points behind Ducati outfit VR46 at the top of the teams’ championship.

It has arrived in Le Mans for Round 5 of the 2023 MotoGP season this weekend off the back of Binder’s victory in the Sprint at Spain’s Jerez and another double podium for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing in the Grand Prix Race.

“[Le Mans is] definitely one of the ones that I look forward to coming to, and I think it’s a track to that can suit our bike,” said Miller, who won the French Grand Prix for the Ducati Team in 2021.

“The bike, as we showed in Jerez, was really good at stopping and then also getting into tight corners which you kind of need here. I’m looking forward to this weekend.”

Practice at Le Mans starts tonight (AEST).