Pramac Yamaha rider Jack Miller will prioritise racing over a test role for 2027 – which could mean having to leave MotoGP.
Miller has just been announced as part of Yamaha’s Suzuka 8 Hour line-up for the second year running, but his prospects of securing a continuation with the manufacturer in MotoGP are not very encouraging.
Save for the injured Maverick Vinales, Miller is the lowest-scoring full-timer in MotoGP this season – and while having the fifth-best bike of five in MotoGP is certainly a big reason for this, Miller has also struggled to assert himself over the likes of stablemates Alex Rins and rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu, much less Yamaha star rider Fabio Quartararo.
Yamaha is believed to have filled three of its four seats already for 2027. Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura are thought to be the factory pairing, while Razgatlioglu will remain with Pramac in the second year of his two-year deal.
And there have been some suggestions in the MotoGP paddock that Miller has already learned he is surplus to requirements in Yamaha’s premier-class roster. A lot of reporting has pointed to a rookie signing – either Pramac Moto2 rider Izan Guevara or Miller’s Australian compatriot Senna Agius – for the seat, and Guevara and Agius have, in the meantime, won the last three Moto2 races between them.
Asked about his contract situation by The Race, Miller said at Le Mans: “I am not focusing on that, I’m trying to f***ing…do better, ride better. Training harder than ever, trying to do the best I can.
“I’m sick and f***ing tired of being at the back. It’s really driving me insane, honestly. Like I said, I’m putting everything I have into this and trying to really take the maximum out of it, give the maximum back to Yamaha and also take the maximum out of it myself.”
The exact shape of MotoGP’s 2027 grid – specifically, which privateer teams will be supplied by which manufacturer – is still in flux, but if Miller is out at Yamaha, a route into one of those other satellite seats looks complicated.
But recent developments in the MotoGP market could open a prime opportunity in World Superbike.
Fabio Di Giannantonio’s reported decision to leave the Ducati camp for a works KTM deal reopens a door for Ducati’s WorldSBK leader Nicolo Bulega to switch over to the premier class.
This, in turn, would vacate a seat that would make any fitting signing an immediate world championship contender – in what is an otherwise fairly barren WorldSBK landscape in terms of free 2027 seats.
And Miller said, when asked by The Race, that a test role just didn’t appeal that much at this point in his career – and that he saw testing as a means to a competitive end.
“I want to race. I don’t mind the testing side of things but I do that for the light at the end of the tunnel – which is going racing,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I enjoy racing motorcycles.”