Jack Miller rounded out an all-Ducati ValenciaGP podium on Sunday having fought back from sixth in the opening laps.
The Ducati Lenovo rider was delighted with the result at a track renowned for being temperamental to get right, despite watching his teammate take victory and fighting hard for second, with Pramac’s Jorge Martin, in the closing stages. Proud of his season as 2021 draws to a close, the Australian was already openly enthusiastic about the coming year.
“Pleased to be part of this history making podium,” Miller said on Sunday night, Champagne bottle in hand.
“Three Ducatis in the top three, first time in history. Fantastic for them and fantastic for the team, fantastic for all the engineers because they’ve been working so hard. If you go back to 2011, 2012, 2013, 14 going on, the history is long of struggling, and to come now when we have so many bikes that are so strong. I know when I stepped into MotoGP in 2015, if you say you want to hop on a Ducati it was like… ‘Do you really?’ But now everybody wants to be on a Ducati. I think that’s the situation that we have.
“I think it comes down to the riders, the engineers, how we’ve been working the last years and it’s great to be a part of this and be a part of the development over the last couple of years. Valencia, special place but the first laps honestly, I felt like a deer in the headlights a little bit. Because I tried to go past Jorge, he immediately passed me back and then I got a little bit flustered, I guess you could say. Then I had a little bit of a moment as I grabbed the brakes into the last corner, went wide, he came through and then it was Suzuki, Suzuki, Yamaha… I said ‘what’s going on here?’, but I was able to regain composure. I was leaving myself a little bit vulnerable, let’s say because I was really managing it on the exit of turn one and through turn 13.
“Just trying to save the tyre, because I remember in the past being here with Marc [Marquez], there were two points on the track where he was really slow and it was where I could catch up. But later in the race they were the two points he was incredibly fast at so I tried to play the long game a little bit. Going back so far at the beginning of the race definitely didn’t help me in the long game. I got lucky with Alex falling later on in the race, but I felt really strong coming on. I looked at the board and there was 14 laps to go and then I looked and it was two laps to go and I said ‘Okay, you need to do something!’ I’d done some really great lap-times in between. I came on the last front straight for the last time and I was really close to Jorge but again, the last corner I was really dodgy the whole way through the race and I was so focused on just getting the line right, carrying the speed through and getting a good exit that I forgot to press the right height device! I came out and the thing wheelied. It wasn’t till I was like in fourth gear and it was still wheelie-ing. I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’ and then I was like ‘Idiot!’ It dropped and by the time it actually hit the bottom I was nearly in the braking zone so that was pointless. Jorge had a bit of a margin on me so I wasn’t even in any place to attack. It’s like three points more or less, turn one, turn two and turn four here that are safe overtaking places for a MotoGP bike. I wasn’t in a position to really attack on the last lap, so bring it home. Fourth in the championship, could have been better. Pecco, second in the championship, Ducati Constructors, Team [titles], a massive year for us, I think.
“A lot of people doubted it at the beginning, putting Pecco and I in the factory team but I think we’ve done all right for ourselves, well, him more than me, and hopefully we can keep a job for a bit longer,” he joked.
When asked what 2022 holds, and what Miller needs to do to compete for the championship next year, he looked to his right.
“Well, after what I’ve seen from him over the last five, six races, looks like you gotta go and win every bloody thing!” he said of Bagnaia. “This bloke has rode amazing the back half of the season and like I said to him and joked with you guys before, wouldn’t you like a few more races, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I think he’s looking super strong but there’s so many. There’s so many. Martin, he’s doing a fantastic job. Fabio [Quartararo], the world champ, [Joan] Mir, I mean, the list goes on.
“So I just got to go home, reflect, be better. Try to improve little things, consistency being one. I don’t understand what it is really, why I always go good to the end of the season. I think I need to plan trips back to Australia more frequent because it seems like when I’m going to go home, I start going alright!
“I’m not scared at all,” he continued looking ahead, and looking pleased with himself!. “We have tried some things in terms of parts for 2022, with the test in Misano and whatnot. And my honest opinion is everything’s only better, so the rest of them are all in trouble next year, because it’s gonna be a big one!
“For sure we’ve improved, don’t get us wrong,” he said, referencing the Desmosedici’s development over the past year, “but to say that the bike has changed or done anything dramatic? If you’re really inside there, we haven’t changed that much. It’s just the thing is working more and more, I think the boys are working. We came here, for example, in the first practice and we put the same setting as we had last year and was not working at all. We went immediately back to what we were using in Portimao, what we’ve used all year, and it was job done. We didn’t touch the bike really apart from some clicks here and there but nothing.
“I think we’ve all been very comfortable with this bike. We found a great package that works and you don’t have to adjust it. Overall every weekend, it’s working fantastic. So I think that’s more the thing, is just getting some time on the same bike, because we’ve been on it for two years. But 2022 bike, you’d better watch out!”
