Extended chat with Jack Miller immediately after Sepang MotoGP Test

Jack Miller

“I think the potential is there big style. Already yesterday shaking it down, you know, overcoming some of the issues we were having, we were able to improve a considerable amount today. I only got to do one time attack today. I had an issue with the bike so in saying that, to go and push on one tyre and do the time we did, I’m pretty happy with that.

“The pace was there…a bit more today but again, working on the engine character, the way the electronics are working, we’re quite busy and in between that trying new parts and stuff like that. It’s been a busy test. It’s a shame it rained in the afternoon, we kind of needed a little more track time but we can’t change that. Anyway, I think got some really good data. Again, like yesterday, everything we tried or the ideas that we had and worked towards, they seem to get better and better.

“I’m quietly confident with the bike. It’s growing on me more and more and yeah, I think we don’t need to have the best bike at the first test, you know we need to have the best bike when Qatar rolls around to run and I think we’re well on the way to having that.

“We’re working first and foremost on the way the bikes behaving. The way the tyres are working undeath and also how the bike is turning. We were working on that yesterday but also another big part of it is the throttle connection, from engine brake to positive gas, and that’s been the big recurring thing. We’ve improved it from where it was in Jerez, and we keep improving but we still have some work to do in terms of that. Trying to get it as smooth as possible and we’ve made steps forward on that. The main thing yesterday and today was just working with the complete new package and just trying to get comfortable. Have the bike so where I point, it goes there, because yesterday it was not behaving like a bike I know.

“I feel good going to Mandalika. I think a new track is what it is. I mean you go and do 10 or 15 laps around it and you know it pretty much and especially just watching the superbike race there last year, it didn’t look like a Texas or something like that, crazy long with a thousand corners. It doesn’t seem all that technical to learn….But for sure, I think, once we get our base setting underway there I’m sure we’ll be able to work on our issues and Mandalika has a few places it looks like with a few slower corners, which is the biggest issue for our bike,s so I think it’s good that we’re going there and I’d prefer to not test at the place we’re doing the first race. I think it’s a bit shitty when you go and do 3,4,5 days testing then you go and race there. Everyone is on pace….and it’s just boring then. You lose the meaning of the whole weekend.

“Yesterday the new bike felt a bit foreign to me…It wasn’t doing….I’d put similar inputs to what I’d normally put in and what I’d expect to happen wasn’t happening so I just had to work on that and work on my set-up, base set-up, basic geometry of the bike as well as adapting yourself around that. Yeah, for sure, the way that the electronics are and the way that bike is delivering the power is the thing we’re working on the most. We have a complete new package this year so, you know, last year, that bike had been worked on throughout 2020 and 2021 so it was pretty well fine tuned by the end of it. Starting from a different base again you need to build up.

“Starting from where we are now, to where the bike should be by the time we get to Qatar, I feel like this package definitely will have more potential once we’ve ironed out all the bugs so that gives me promise.

“There is so much more workload to do being in the factory team that you don’t get to throw tyres at it and have all that fun that you do at a satellite team, where you can go and break records and what not. At the end of the day Enea is on a fantastic package. I know very well how good his package is, and also he’s riding fantastic. To do a 1m58.1 around here, I honestly thought they were going to go into the 1m57s today and it was making me even more nervous, but they didn’t quite crack it. They’re riding really well. All those boys are riding really good. We’re half a second off and as I said, as a base setting for a new bike I think we can be pretty happy with that. Me and Pecco, and Zarco was a little faster, but we are all very similar on the new package.”

Sepang MotoGP Test Combined Times

The previous benchmarks

Fabio Quartararo holds the qualifying lap record at Sepang with a 1m58.303. The top speed record is held by Andrea Iannone at 339.6 km/h. Valentino Rossi holds the race lap record at 1m59.661. Outside of a race weekend, Danilo Petrucci set the previous outright benchmark at 1m58.239 during testing here in 2019 when it was a Ducati 1-2-3-4 atop the time-sheets.

Sepang Test Top Speeds

2022 MotoGP Entry List

2022 Provisional MotoGP Calendar

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