Miller ‘not stressed’ about 2020 contract hold-up

Jack Miller is “not stressed” about his 2020 Pramac contract despite there having been no progress on it since before the summer break.

Miller had stated as far back as June that “Pretty much everything is done except putting pen to paper” on a new deal with Pramac Racing.

Danilo Petrucci’s re-signing at the factory Mission Winnow Ducati was subsequently confirmed at the last MotoGP round in Germany, four weeks ago, which officially ruled Miller out of a promotion to that seat.

In the likely event that Miller does remain at Pramac, Ducati would have to supply the team with two Desmosedici GP20 bikes given that team-mate Francesco Bagnaia is contracted to ride one next year and the Australian would demand one.

While Ducati has already indicated its willingness to do so, and also Pramac for such an arrangement to take place, the details around supplying two latest-specification bikes remains the hold-up, according to Miller.

“I’m in the same point (as in Germany),” said the 24-year-old on progress on contract talks.

“It hasn’t changed. I’m in the same point, the team… we’re pretty much shaken hands, but the team is still finalising.

“There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of his (Bagnaia’s) 2020 bike, my 2020 bike. So just organising how they’re going to get the budget for that and all that stuff.

“So it just takes time, it’s quite a big change in terms of the team and budgets and stuff like that, from the team and also from Ducati.

“So it takes time, but where else am I going to go? I’m not stressed.”

The Ducatis have struggled in the last two rounds at Assen and the Sachsenring, but Miller is hoping that this weekend’s Czech MotoGP at Brno and the following weekend’s Austrian MotoGP at the Red Bull Ring will mark a change of fortunes.

“Austria is not a track I have done particularly well at in the past but it is a track Ducati has done really well at,” he noted.

“I am excited to get there and see what we can do this year.

“The bike is working well and I really like this place here (Brno) also even if the results maybe don’t show.

“It is one of the last old school tracks with a big layout, long lap, a lot of fun. I hope we can do a decent job, the bike worked really well here last year so it should be alright this year.

“For me, Barcelona wasn’t too bad but Assen and Sachsenring were complete disasters in both races, even if it didn’t look too bad at Sachsenring, but I didn’t feel good.

“When you don’t have that feeling, you just don’t have that feeling.

“I am hoping we can get it back here and ride more in our comfort zone and be as fast as we have been at other tracks.”

Free Practice 1 starts tonight at 1755 AEST.