Jack Miller’s verdict on debut Yamaha season: “Fun year, but…” - Exclusive

Jack Miller described his debut MotoGP season with Yamaha as a mixture of “highs and some lows”.

The Honda and Ducati race winner returned to Pramac, the team he took nine podiums with on Desmosedici machinery from 2018 to 2020, alongside Miguel Oliveira for the first year of its new Yamaha era.

The Australian, whose MotoGP career had been in jeopardy before securing the Pramac deal, emerged as Yamaha’s next best rider behind Fabio Quartararo and earned a new contract for 2026.

“Highs and some lows,” Miller told Crash.net. “Some great results, some not so great results. And some results that could have been great that slipped away from us.”

Miller’s best grand prix result was a fifth place at COTA early in the season.

However, he also saw a potential victory slip away in mixed conditions at Le Mans and later qualified on the front row at Phillip Island - where he finished just 0.066s from a home Sprint podium, only to crash early in his grand prix.

“It's always tough when you swap manufacturers,” Miller added. “With MotoGP being as competitive as it is, you're trying to build speed with no real testing.

“You're just trying to play catch-up basically the whole year. It's easy to get caught out and make mistakes.

“It's always difficult swapping over and we've tried to adapt to the situation the best we could. Some great results, some not so great results, but all in all it's been a fun year.”

Miller, who finished as the top M1 rider on five occasions, was quick to credit Quartararo for being “incredibly fast”.

But he also felt his experience on other MotoGP machinery had helped bring a new set-up direction, while conceding that Yamaha’s growing focus on the V4 project meant making the most of the Inline machine’s final season.

“Obviously, Fabio in some places has been incredibly fast, a lot faster than the rest of us. Other places I've been fast, it’s been a bit like that all year,” he said.

“I think with the information I was able to bring across from another manufacturer, I think it stopped them working in, let's say, the direction that they were.

“The bike, in terms of setup and stuff like that, has changed dramatically in the past 12 months, just the way they approach the weekend, base setup and all that.

“We changed chassis at the beginning of the year, then once it was sort of a clear direction on the V4, then it was all hands-on deck basically to get that ready.

“So you're just kind of trying to learn and figure things out race by race with the package that we've got, knowing that we're going to be on a different package next season.

“But you still approach each race as though you can win it and you try to carry that mindset and positive attitude into each weekend.”