KTM has identified what could be the key reason behind Jack Miller’s disastrous run of results in the 2024 MotoGP season.
The Austrian manufacturer believes vibration issues, arising both from the new Michelin compounds and the latest-spec RC16, could explain why Miller only managed to break inside the top 10 once before the summer break.
While KTM stablemates Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta bagged podium finishes at the beginning of the year, Miller is yet to beat the fifth-place result he achieved in slightly fortuitous circumstances in Portugal.
This has left the Australian down in 16th place in the standing on just 35 points, having scored 90 points by the same stage of the championship last year.
A number of riders struggled with chattering issues as the 2024 MotoGP season began in Qatar in March, but the problem became less and less common as the year went on, as riders got their way around the problem.
However, according to KTM, both Miller and GasGas Tech3 rider Augusto Fernandez continue to lose out due to vibration on their bikes and aren’t able to extract the kind of performance they are capable of.
“[Miller] is the one who is suffering more from the vibrations of the new package than the others,” KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti told Autosport’s sister title Motorsport-Total.com.
‘It's the package. We've been struggling with vibrations since the beginning of the year. They are due to the new package.
“Jack, like Augusto, is suffering a lot from these vibrations at the moment. He can't utilise the potential of the bike as much as he would like to.”
Miller has been dropped by KTM for the 2025 season as part of a rider line-up shake-up, with Acosta moving up to the factory team alongside Miller and Tech3 signing Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales from Ducati and Aprilia respectively.
The 20-year-old was initially told privately by KTM that it wants to keep him in the team for a second tenure, before being informed that he won’t get a new contract in a brutal U-turn.
Fernandez, likewise underperforming in what is his sophomore campaign, has also not been retained by the Pierer Mobility Group.
KTM is hoping that Miller will have extra fire burning inside him as he tries to impress rival manufacturers and extend his future in the premier class.
“He will not give up,” said Guidotti. “We are now focussing on the remaining races this season and will keep trying until the end of the season. After all, we are here to win.
“He will certainly want to prove that we made a mistake by not giving him another chance.
“Of course, he will want to prove that he deserves a place in the MotoGP field, then with another manufacturer. I really can't imagine that he will give up. He will want to enjoy MotoGP riding to the end.”
