Jack Miller must be ‘brave and smart’ if he is to maximise his and the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team’s potential during the 2024 MotoGP World Championship as he heads into a critical second season with the Austrian outfit.
The Australian joined KTM at the start of the 2023 MotoGP season but despite flashes of strong pace, came away with only a single podium finish during a full-length grand prix.
Often one of the fastest riders in qualifying and at the start of races, Miller’s results would suffer most in the longer Sunday features, giving him a clear target to improve upon for 2024.
Indeed, his second year comes as the heat from within is expected to rise with highly-rated youngster Pedro Acosta waiting in the wings for the factory team potentially.
The Spaniard - who will make his MotoGP debut with the sister GasGas team in 2024 - turned heads with regular and consistent top ten times during pre-season testing at Sepang.
It’s a pressure KTM team boss Francesco Guidotti is aware could play on Miller’s mind but he urges him to try and put the speculation about his future out of his head.
“Sometimes it is very difficult to understand what is in his mind,” Guidotti said. “But also he is in a big place in life where has to make a big decision. He is pretty young but he says the younger are coming quickly, so he needs to behave this year.
“When you reach a level, it is always a matter of mental approach so he has to be really brave and really consistent and really smart to use the correct mental approach this season. All the speculation about the riders’ market has to be forgotten.”
