After five years with Ducati, Jack Miller took a risk with the Red Bull KTM project for the 2023 MotoGP season. Instead of having the most competitive bike in the field, he had an RC16 still in a growing phase, which he naturally had to get to know and adapt to. In the end, he finished 11th in the championship.
The season started with the Portuguese GP, where the Australian fought for a podium in the Sprint race (finishing fourth) and ended the main race in seventh. A promising start considering his limited time with the bike. As the season progressed, it became clear that this would be Miller’s usual position in the classification.
The beginning of the European phase of the calendar was crowned with the first podium with KTM, finishing third in the Spanish GP. It was the highlight of the year at all levels, including the overall standings where he was in fourth place. Miller mentioned at the time that he had finally managed to put everything together in a GP: ‘The bike has been phenomenal all year. We had good pace and everything, but it was like something was missing here, or we lacked this, so we could have done better. And it was good this weekend to have everything polished and do everything right‘. After the podium in Jerez, the second retirement of the season followed in a main race. In fact, only once did Miller manage to score in more than three consecutive main races, between the Indian and Australian GPs. However, among the races he finished, he was a regular presence among the top ten: he only failed to finish in that classification zone three times on Sundays. Despite being a driver of unquestionable potential, the challenges of adapting to KTM and the consequent sports results falling short of previously demonstrated potential did not fail to spark rumors about Miller’s future. Even though he had a valid contract, there was speculation during the summer that he could lose his spot to make way for Pedro Acosta – possibly being demoted to GasGas Tech3. This did not happen, but it also does not seem to have destabilized #43. Adapting to Sprint races seems to have been relatively easy for Miller, who fought for points several times on Saturdays and had two third places as his best results: he only finished outside the points in the short Saturday races in eight out of 19 races.Staying in the fight for the top ten of the championship until the last round, the retirement while leading the Valencia GP threw Miller to 11th place overall. At the end of the year, the Australian was pleased with the campaign: ‘I feel that every year I have been improving more and more. And if you look at the results on paper this year is probably the worst in some time. But we had many changes, we had many difficulties this season. But we also overcame many things. Many people said 12 months ago that I would be out of a job at this time of year. I am glad to show they were wrong, I am glad to show that KTM is actually a very sought-after bike now‘.
Brad Binder showed that KTM is a bike capable of fighting for much stronger results, finishing the World Championship in fourth. Miller will have to make considerable improvements and be closer to the top tier in 2024, especially because he cannot afford to neglect his position when there is the threat of losing it to the promising rookie Pedro Acosta.
Jack Miller’s 2023 season:
Portuguese GP: 4th Sprint/7th GP – 5th in the championship
Argentinian GP: 10th Sprint/6th GP – 6th in the championship
Americas GP: 9th Sprint/Retirement in GP – 12th in the championship
Spanish GP: 3rd Sprint/3rd GP – 4th in the championship
French GP: Retirement in Sprint and GP – 8th in the championship
Italian GP: 6th Sprint/7th GP – 7th in the championship
German GP: 3rd Sprint/6th GP – 7th in the championship
Dutch GP: 11th Sprint/Retirement in GP – 7th in the championship
British GP: 7th Sprint/8th GP – 8th in the championship
Austrian GP: 5th Sprint/15th GP – 8th in the championship
Catalan GP: 16th Sprint/8th GP – 9th in the championship
San Marino GP: 15th Sprint/Retirement in GP – 10th in the championship
Indian GP: 7th Sprint/14th GP – 9th in the championship
Japanese GP: 4th Sprint/6th GP – 9th in the championship
Indonesian GP: 9th Sprint/7th GP – 9th in the championship
Australian GP: 7th GP (no Sprint) – 9th in the championship
Thai GP: 10th Sprint/16th GP – 10th in the championship
Malaysian GP: 6th Sprint/8th GP – 10th in the championship
Qatari GP: 12th Sprint/9th GP – 11th in the championship
Valencia GP: 12th Sprint/Retirement in GP – 11th in the championship
