Jack Miller was such a prodigious talent that he skipped Moto2 entirely and jumped straight from the lightweight class to MotoGP. He was the first rider in history to do so, and it remains virtually unheard of.
After winning several dirt bike and motocross titles in Australia as a child, Miller took his first road-racing championship in 2011 (a 125cc crown in Germany). That opened the door to the Grand Prix paddock.
Miller built up slowly in the 125cc/Moto3 class before exploding in 2014, when he won six out of 18 races and scored 10 podiums. He finished as the runner-up to Alex Marquez but beat the likes of Alex Rins, Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Francesco Bagnaia.
How will Jack Miller be remembered as a MotoGP rider?
Jack Miller didn’t look as special when he took on ‘the world’s best’
Miller memorably won his first race in just his second season as a MotoGP rider. His victory at Assen cemented his reputation as a wet-weather specialist.
But he wouldn’t stand on the podium again until 2019, and didn’t return to the top step until 2021 (the only season where he won multiple races).
Ricard Jove, a former Grand Prix racer and rider manager who knew Miller as a youngster, feels he hasn’t fulfilled his potential in the premier class.
He told the Fast and Curious podcast: “Miller and Rins – I knew them back when they were [making you say] ‘wow, wow’ – and Maverick, too. Those three had natural talent, but they did something wrong.
“There’s no ‘talent-o-meter’ to measure it. But you can see it, you can feel it: you give them a bike, and within two sessions, they’re hitting record lap times. We’ve seen that happen many times with many riders, and you just go, ‘Wow.’
“But the thing is, for those who have so much natural talent, where everything comes easily to them, when they finally start competing against the world’s best and everything gets harder, they don’t handle the frustration well.
“They struggle with the fact that they aren’t winning as easily as they did in the junior ranks. And then we get into the whole ‘it’s always the bike’s fault’ mentality, blaming everyone else, and that is something I’ve definitely seen firsthand.
“People who shift the blame instead of taking ownership or figuring out how to improve this or that, or they do try, but without the perseverance or the humility to recognise their own flaws.”
Jove was keen to stress that he wasn’t talking about a ‘specific’ rider, but this narrative could certainly be applied to Miller’s career. On a grid featuring riders like Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and, latterly, Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Martin, he no longer looked as special.
Miller can still be proud of his career, of course. He is one of only 10 riders in premier-class history to hit 200 race starts, and that alone proves he is highly regarded in the paddock.
But there may also be a sense of disappointment when, in all likelihood, he contests his final MotoGP race at the end of this year.
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