Despite an enforced three-week break in the wake of the postponement of the inaugural Grand Prix of Kazakhstan, the MotoGP Silly Season has been in full swing with manufacturers, teams and rider managers busier than ever as the pieces of the 2025 grid jigsaw start falling into place.
A spate of high-profile signings has stunned fans and paddock dwellers in equal measure, with as many as 13 of the grid’s 22 names poised to change squads for next year.
Ducati’s fear of losing Marc Marquez resulted in Jorge Martin sensationally defecting to Aprilia for 2025. Marquez signing with the factory Ducati team had further knock-on effects as Enea Bastiianini – the current holder of that seat – signed for KTM’s Tech3 squad, along with Maverick Vinales, his nose apparently put out of joint by Martin’s signing. VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi will move across to take his seat in Aprilia’s factory team.
All of which has left Jack Miller without a place firmed up for next year.
The Townsville rider’s prospects haven’t been helped by a tough start to the season. Ahead of the Assen round Miller was sitting 16th in the championship, having scored a measly 27 points. It was his worst position at this point in a season since 2016, his second year in MotoGP.
Emerging from Mugello without scoring a point was the final straw for KTM and they moved quickly to sign a replacement.
KTM’s Director of Motorsport Pit Beirer was initially hoping for more time to judge Miller. Yet once Martin departed for Aprilia and it was clear Marquez was heading for the factory Ducati squad, Bastianini and Vinales both expressed an interest in joining KTM. But both wanted clear answers. And quickly.
“For us it was a positive surprise that he was really open and really serious about it,” said Beirer of the surprise negotiations with Vinales. “And it was not just him trying to get an offer from us to gamble with somebody else. We sat down. We talked about the terms. And we agreed – it was not even back and forth.”
“Giving up on Jack and Augusto (Fernandez, also to leave KTM) is really sad,” he said. “I was hoping, including Mugello, that Jack shows us that we get him back on the level he should be. I mean, like in Mugello being out of the points, that’s not where Jack Miller should be.
“No matter what the future brings we have to turn that around. Because that’s not how we’re going to end our relationship. We tried but at the end I thought we’d get longer time to get both of the boys to do it. But then the market was so much under pressure that if we didn’t take the chance in that one week to start conversations and finish it the other day, we just wouldn’t have had these chances anymore.
“We took the hard decision to move forward. It’s giving up on something that was not in the plan, definitely not.”
The fact Miller was dropped came as a shock to him. At Assen he revealed KTM had backtracked on its words.
“The last I heard was ‘Don’t bother talking to anybody, we want to keep you in the family’. And then you get a phone call three hours before the [Bastainini/Vinales announcement] gets launched saying that you’re not getting a contract. So yeah, I was surprised to say the least.”
Miller still has a few options available to him for 2025; Gresini Ducati remains one, and it appears a seat at the new Pramac Yamaha satellite team could be another.
“With the options that we have on the table at the moment, there’s a good spot for me in MotoGP already,” Miller said. “I will be 30 next year. I still feel, like I said, I’ve got more to give here in MotoGP. It’s just a matter of weighing up our options.”
Miller had more to tell AMCN regarding the MotoGP Silly Season and his prospects for 2025 and you can read all about it in AMCN Vol 74 No 02, on sale Thursday 4 August.
WORDS: NEIL MORRISON PHOTOS: GOLD&GOOSE
