MotoGP Austria: Jack Miller plans return to Ducati-style set up, ‘like putting on an old boot’

Rear grip problems at the Austrian MotoGP convinced Jack Miller that he should return to his usual style of bike set-up at KTM.
Jack
Jack

The Australian has&ಞnbsp;been experimentin🧸g with ‘rotating’ more weight onto the rear of the RC16 in recent events, bringing him in line with the other riders.

While it has advantages, Miller has concluded it’s not beneficial with🃏 his ‘particular’ riding sty⛄le and will go back to the kind of set-up he also preferred at Ducati.

After qualifying fourth, Miller hܫeld an early third place in both Red Bull Ring races, finishing fifth in the Sprint but fading all the way to 15th in the full-length grand prix,📖 when the rear grip issues were fully exposed.

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“I started the raꦦce well and tried not to kill the tyre in the first laps,” Miller said.

“But as soon as I started trying to go with Pecco and Brad, I immediately noticed that I didn't have the drive grip th🌳at I needed and then was just trying to manage the best I could…

“Short shifting,✨ picking the bike up and mana🔜ging it with the throttle. Doing what I can, but I was in the shit.

“We were struggling at the end there. I was on the base rubber, ౠa lot of spinning in a st⛎raight line.

“As you saw, all the p♛asses [on me] came from the last corner to first corner. I had really low top speed not because of the engine, but because of the 💝acceleration out of the last corner.

“And it was the same situation exiting 1, exiting 3. In꧂ a track like this, it’s nearly the whole lap. I was able to force it in the left-handers to try and catch back. But wasn't to be.”

The 28-year-old, who moved to KTM this season, explained: “We changed the bike quite a considerable amount in Assen, trying to go in the direction of all the othꦚer guys, a little bit away from my normal kind♊ of setting, which is [more weight] on the front.

“We rotat✤ed the bike to the back. And since that moment I've been struggling a lot for this: When the grip is low, we’re not able to accelerate well, we're not able to keep the tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚyre in the bike and I'm not able to carry the corner speed then when the tyre is starting to drop. You're relying solely on the rear tyre.

“Yes, [more weight on the rear] isꩲ giving me 💟a good front feeling that I can brake a little bit maybe harder, but in general I'm then braking too much to try and rely on the bike to turn.

“So I think the biggest thing for us is taking a step back,🌞 going back to our old setting and maybe findin💎g a little bit of a different direction to work for myself.

“I have a particular riding sty♓le and I don't think it's working with this setting.

“We're still trying to build and understand [things with the KTM] a෴nd this can hap🎉pen.”

“Going back to t☂he other s💞etting, I think will be like putting on an old boot,” Miller added.

“I🥂 knowꦿ that bike. It's generally how I had my Ducati set up and it was just trying something out-of-the-box with this setting.

"Like I said, we🌠 rotated it by quite a considerable amount because generally on my setting I'm a bit slower exiting faster corners. I struggle to find grip there.

“But we've tried this setting a🎐nd it hasn't been the case of improving, so we'll try to go back and work in another direction, understanding that I need to be able to have this front confidence to carry the corner speed.

“And you carry that cꦆorner speed all the way😼 to the end of the straight. So that's the biggest thing.”

Miller, whose team-mate Brad Binder finished second to Francesco Bagnaia in both races, remains eighth i𒊎n the world championship at the midway poꦏint of the 2023 season.

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