Marco Bezzecchi
Jack Miller is not predicting an ‘easy weekend’ for Pramac Yamaha at the Grand Prix of the Americas, so has now sent his team a ‘crucial’ statement ahead of the Austin race.
The 30-year-old is preparing for his third round riding a Yamaha YZR-M1 this weekend after Miller joined Pramac on a factory contract for the 2025 season. It has not been a great term for the Australian, though, with Miller still yet to get a top-10 finish in a Sprint or Grand Prix.
Qualifying for the season-opening Thai Grand Prix has proven to be the highlight of Miller’s campaign so far. He claimed fourth on the grid at Buriram before fading to 11th in the main race. The Townsville, Queensland native qualified and also finished the Argentina GP in P13.
Data collecting will be ‘crucial’ for Pramac Yamaha rider Jack Miller at the Americas GP
Miller questioned Pramac’s tyre strategy for the Argentina GP having fitted the medium rear before struggling for grip. He also now heads to the Americas GP expecting a hard weekend at what Miller considers one of the most challenging circuits on the 2025 MotoGP calendar.
Still, his results in the Thai GP and Argentina GP rank Miller above factory Yamaha duo Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins in the riders’ standings. He is in 13th place with eight points ahead of this weekend’s Americas GP, while Quartararo boasts six in P15 and Rins holds five in P16.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Jack Miller from net worth to wife
Miller is not holding out much hope for the Pramac rider scoring a lot of points at the Grand of the Americas, however. Instead, the Aussie feels it will be ‘crucial’ for Pramac and Yamaha to use his first time at COTA aboard an M1 to collect ‘crucial’ data to improve their package.
“I have never raced here with Yamaha, so I am not sure what to expect,” he noted, via Crash. “But I am eager to see how the YZR-M1 will adapt to this track – one of the most challenging in terms of set-up on the calendar, and very different from the ones we have raced on so far.
“It will not be an easy weekend for us but, at this point in the season, what is crucial is collecting as much data as possible for the engineers.”
Yamaha will hope Jack Miller’s COTA data helps to resolve their tyre wear problems
It has not been the start to the season that Yamaha and Pramac would have hoped for given their positive signs through pre-season testing. The first two races have shown the YZR-M1 is not ready to fight for wins and Quartararo expected more from Yamaha’s winter upgrades.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Pramac from the MotoGP team’s riders to bike
One of the biggest issues Yamaha riders Quartararo and Rins plus Pramac pair Miller and the injured Miguel Oliveira (who Augusto Fernandez will substitute for at COTA) have endured is tyre wear. Massimo Meregalli claims Yamaha have ‘never’ seen their tyre wear levels before.
Still, despite struggling to make progress and suffering with tyre grip, Miller ‘dreamed’ of his consistent Argentina GP lap times before riding the Yamaha M1 with Pramac after struggling at KTM for the past two years. Now, he heads to COTA expecting another challenging round.
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