Jack Miller forced out as bike 'gets lost', becomes 'foreign'

Jack Miller's factory Ducati gets 'lost' during the Qatar MotoGP; 'Over the back part of the track it would give me a massive burst of throttle, then I'd almost get run up the arse out of the last corner'.

Peter McLaren

07 Mar 2022

Jack Miller, Qatar MotoGP race, 6 March 2022
© Gold and Goose

An electronics issue caused Jack Miller's factory Ducati to get 'lost' during Sunday's Qatar MotoGP.

Qualifying fourth and confident in his race pace, Miller looked set to play a starring role in the season opener and erase last year's ninth place disappointment.

But the behaviour of his GP22 became 'foreign' from the start, dropping him to tenth on lap 1 and 16th on lap 6, after which he retired.

The problem described by Miller, and fitting with the term 'lost', suggests his Ducati's engine management became out of sync with his actual location on the race track.

Things like power delivery are tuned corner-by-corner so that, for example, 50% throttle during a change of direction will provide a different level of power to 50% throttle on the main straight.

The problem seems to be that Miller's bike was providing 'full' main straight power in twisty sections and then a soft delivery on the straight.

"From the get-go the bike wasn't fantastic, there was something missing in the electronics," Miller explained. "The bike was quite lost, let's say. I had 100% power in some very strange points of the track, and then coming onto the front straight, I had no power.

"I had to go to fourth gear pretty much directly out of the last corner. Everybody was passing me. I honestly thought I was going to get run up the arse, simply because I was that slow.

"I tried everything I could, swapped from [engine] map A to B to C, system on, system off. Tried my best, but nothing. At one point, especially over the back part of the track, it kept firing me in-between corners, it would give me a massive burst of throttle.

"Of course my throttle is open, but I'm not expecting that. And then also the fear of almost getting run up the arse every time I came out of the last corner, because I'm on the racing line and not accelerating.

"I just decided it was better to just pull in. So, not a great day.

"The bike was foreign, let's say. Very foreign. It is what it is. We know the issue, we know what happened. It's unfortunate, and hopefully it won't happen again."

Team-mate and title runner-up Francesco Bagnaia completed a night to forget for the factory Ducati team when he fell and took down Pramac's Jorge Martin.