Miller: GP17 'very competitive, as we saw last year'

If MotoGP testing to date is anything to go by, Jack Miller could be one of the surprises of the 2018 season.

Switching to Pramac Ducati after three premier-class seasons at Honda, the young Australian has been able to banish the inconsistency from his RCV days, setting the fifth fastest (+0.5s) lap at Sepang and then sixth best (+0.4s) at Buriram.

Is it possible that riding a difficult bike at the start of his MotoGP career is paying off now?

"It's hard to say. For sure I learned how to manage wheelie and stuff like that over the last three years, because that was a key point of the Honda," Miller replied.

"That's what Marc does so well on the Honda and also Dani. They get the bike to the correct angle and really work the tyre properly. So I do feel like that's helping me on the [Ducati].

"But Marc's won the championship on that bike for the last two years. It's not a bad bike, but I couldn't really get it to work, so I can't say too much."

Miller made an unintended 'change of plan' during the final of testing in Thailand when he fell at the start of his race simulation, only his second accident of the year.

"The plan was to do 20 laps but I got one lap in and then crashed. So the plan is now to fix the bike!" he grinned during the lunch break.

"A good test for us this morning, we tried a few different things on the bike in terms of the chassis set-up. I was happy with the adjustments we made, then just a slight mistake in the long run.

"We'd been running not quite on a full tank. For the long run we put the full tank and I was maybe a little bit over ambitious on the brakes, braking where I normally would and with the full tank it wasn't quite possible.

"I just hit a bump with no [suspension] stroke left and lost the front in a really silly spot, so just a small mistake that we need to iron out. We've had one small mistake here and one small mistake in Malaysia, so to stop these now would be good!

"Apart from that I'm really, really happy with the performance of the bike, myself and the team. We seem to be working better and better each day and also my comments are being understood really, really quickly now and we are able to make changes very quickly."

Miller went on to complete his delayed race simulation in the afternoon heat. As with all the Buriram laps, the variety of tyre choice and fact that different rubber will be used for October's inaugural Thai race muddied the waters a little.

"I rode the [harder construction] Spielberg tyre and to be honest even the soft compound of the Spielberg tyre was a little bit hard," Miller said. "It felt, especially on the left side, quite difficult to get temperature into it. Had a few big moments on entry to turn four - and it's quite a fast corner - where it just didn't have any support on the rear.

"So I think for sure all the tyres we had for this test, we won't have for the race. But I'm sure they will bring something in that style, because when you've got the grip on that tyre it's working well. So that style, but maybe a little softer."

Asked what he is still missing from 2017 Desmosedici, Miller said the main thing is simply experience.

"I feel I have a very good bike under me, I feel I just need more experience on this bike and I think that will help us to improve in all areas. Our bike, as we saw last year, is very competitive. It's a strong bike and we just need to have a more mature head on it and we'll be okay for the races."

With only the Qatar test to go, Miller remains tight-lipped about what will be possible results-wise this season: "I don’t have a crystal ball!"

However, the Assen 2016 winner admits he's had a good run since climbing on the GP17, which Andrea Dovizioso took to second in last year's world championship.

"Valencia we had a good test. Jerez I struggled a little bit more, but Sepang and here have been really good as well. It's difficult to say yet [what will be possible] but I'm looking forward to getting to Qatar and feeling how the bike works there, with some more flowing corners.

"Because the problem we do have with this bike sometimes is a bit of turning, so it will be interesting to see how it goes there. But of course we've also seen in the past the Ducati is normally a strong bike in Qatar..."

At the Sepang test, KTM's Bradley Smith highlighted how the spread of GP17s to Pramac (Miller), Aspar (Bautista) and Avintia (Rabat) this year - combined with three new GP18s for Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Miller's team-mate Danilo Petrucci - would change the balance of the grid.

"We all knew when the satellite [Ducati] riders got the 2017 bikes, they were going to jump forward again," the Englishman explained. "Which obviously makes our life difficult."

The Qatar test takes place from March 1.3