Miller to ‘start pushing’ after crazy changes in Ducati GP19 switch

Jack Miller says stepping up to the Ducati GP19, having spent this season battling on the GP17, has been a busy adapting experience as “the changes are crazy” but feels ready to start pushing the limits of the bike on day two of the Valencia MotoGP test.

The Pramac Ducati rider effectively jumps up two years of bike specification this winter as he takes up the factory-standard GP19 with Danilo Petrucci moving up to the works squad next to Andrea Dovizioso.

Miller spent his opening day of winter testing getting familiar with his new Ducati but was restrained to just 19 laps due to the weather conditions and a late technical issue.

But despite the limited track time and big changes he’s content with the early progress on the new Ducati.

“There's not many things on the bike that feel similar,” Miller explained. “It's hard to almost believe it's only two years more advanced than my bike, but man, the changes are crazy. I'm on a GP19 already.

“Everything [is different]. Turn, brake, stop, accelerate. It's smooth. We haven't even adjusted the settings, this was my first time on the carbon forks, so just trying to get used to everything. It's a big thing to try to take in. Really happy with the way it's unfolding at the moment.

“I was trying to run the medium tire at the start there, but it wasn't working so I put the soft in, and that was with the technical issue. But even with the technical issue, I was still able to improve my lap time and I was going relatively easy. So I'm excited to see what can happen when we start pushing tomorrow.”

Also on Miller’s long list of new experiences was adapting to the highly-coveted Ducati gearbox which has been credited with the Italian manufacturer’s biggest breakthrough this year in combination with its powerful engine.

“The way the gearbox works is very smooth, it puts the weight to the tyre nice and gentle,” Miller said. “The power is very linear out of the corner. So it's very easy to control, and you don't upset it too much.

“With the new gearbox, you always have to be aggressive, and I'm always very hard. Aggressive on the lever. You actually have to push it harder, the lever, both up and down gears. But the way it goes through the gears is a lot smoother.”

Having ended day one 14th on the timesheet, with a best lap of 1m 32.555s and 1.1 seconds slower than pace-setter Maverick Vinales, Miller is now eager to beginning upping his own pace having found lap time gains easy to come by during his introduction day.

Miller was four-tenths off his qualifying time set during the race weekend but did crash out of Q2 before his final runs.

“It's very light, very easy, especially through the fast change of directions here, through Turns 8, 9, 10, 11,” he said. “Through there it really picked the line.

“Especially this morning, even though there were still some wet patches out there and I was trying to stay away from the white lines, I found myself going onto the white lines on the inside because of how well it was turning. So I'm really excited for tomorrow and keen to get back out there.”