Jack Miller believes he and teammate Francesco Bagnaia have demonstrated so far that Ducati was right to modify its factory MotoGP lineup for 2021.
Last season, Ducati decided to replace three-time championship runner-up Andrea Dovizioso and double race winner Danilo Petrucci with former Pramac duo Miller and Bagnaia for the 2021 season.
The move received some criticism because Miller hadn’t won a race since 2016 and Bagnaia had only one podium prior to this season, but both have helped Ducati to a good start to the season.
Following a difficult start to the season, Miller won back-to-back races at Jerez and Le Mans, while Bagnaia finished third in three of the first four races.
After nine races, Bagnaia is third in the standings, 47 points behind leader Fabio Quartararo, while Miller is 56 points back in fifth.
Though Miller acknowledges that “the real validation” will come at the end of the year, he believes he and Bagnaia – who will remain with the factory team in 2022 – have done enough to vindicate Ducati’s choice to entirely reshape its major team for 2021.
“I think so,” he said at a track day at Barcelona when asked by Autosport if he thought he done enough to prove Ducati was right to sign him.
“I think they’ve got some validation, but the real validation will be by the end of the year.
“There will be people with a microscope better and saying, ‘They could have done this better’, or something like that.
“[At] the end of the day, the decision was already done and we’re already racing and they can’t go back on that decision.
“No, I think we did a good job and Pecco and I – especially Pecco’s been very consistent, I’m trying my best to do my best job.
“But I think we’re doing a good job for the team and for the manufacturer.
“The manufacturer championship we are right there, and also in the riders’.”
Ducati, which won the constructors’ championship last season, is presently in second place, only 17 points behind Yamaha.
Miller’s title charge in 2021 has been hampered by two ninth-charge finishes and a DNF in the first three rounds, but he is “quietly confident” that the remaining races in the second half of the season would allow him to do a “decent job.”
“We got the two victories and even the podium here in Montmelo to be proud of, but the opening couple of races weren’t ideal and the obviously the crash in Assen was unnecessary,” Miller added.
“But it’s done, we can’t change that now and we can only look to the future, to what we can do in the second half of the season better.
“And I feel quietly confident in the second half of the season, a lot more tracks that I like and a lot of tracks the Ducati likes. So, I think we can do a decent job.”
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