Barely a week and a half after the end of the Ducati saga for the second factory place, the MotoGP driver carousel has turned again. On Thursday, KTM announced its complete driver line-up for the coming season and with it the new line-up of the Tech3 team with Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini. The outgoing KTM riders Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez therefore face an uncertain future. What options do the two have for remaining in MotoGP?
“It’s a logical decision. He’s a huge talent and we didn’t show what we should have shown,” said Jack Miller, commenting on KTM’s decision to give his place in the factory team to MotoGP super rookie Pedro Acosta for the coming season. At the same time, the Australian, who only collected 27 World Championship points in 2024, had expressed hope that he would still have a future in the KTM camp and publicly offered a move to the customer team Tech3. An option that did not seem unrealistic at first. “Jack absolutely still has a chance to stay with us next year,” explained KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer in an interview with ‘MotoGP.com’ on the sidelines of the Mugello weekend.
Jack Miller before changing manufacturer: MotoGP lifeline Honda?
Miller could have been Bastianini’s new teammate, whose move to the KTM camp on a factory machine was approved by manager Carlo Pernat had already revealed this on Italian radio last week. What nobody suspected at the time, however, was that KTM would also bring a second external rider into its own MotoGP project in Vinales. The Spaniard is leaving Aprilia quite surprisingly after a promising start to the season, which meant that KTM had of course also decided against keeping Miller, who had come to Mattighofen from the Ducati camp at the beginning of 2023.
However, his departure from KTM after two years does not necessarily mean his final exit from MotoGP. There is a real interest in Miller: the Honda Racing Corporation. The struggling manufacturer is still in the worst crisis in its own MotoGP history and is looking for experienced riders who can help rebuild a competitive motorcycle. The Australian fits a profile that is almost perfect. After all, he has proven his strengths as a development rider in recent years at both Ducati and KTM.
According to MotoGP Paddock information, the HRC Group is said to have already made Miller a contract offer. He could succeed Joan Mir in the Japanese Repsol Honda factory team. The 2020 MotoGP World Champion’s contract expires at the end of the season, and an extension seems extremely unlikely these days. The Spaniard has recently made no secret of the fact that he would like to leave the Honda camp if a suitable offer comes along. Trackhouse Racing and Gresini are said to be interested. If Miller does not end up at Repsol Honda, contrary to expectations, Yamaha could also be an alternative for the same reasons if Alex Rins has to leave the factory team after just one season.
Augusto Fernandez: Staying in MotoGP with Yamaha and Pramac?
Yamaha is also a good keyword here, because the manufacturer from Iwata, Japan, is also probably the only hope for Augusto Fernandez to remain in MotoGP. That is, if Yamaha can secure the customer team it has been hoping for for the coming season. The situation there, however, is still unclear. Team manager Lin Jarvis initially announced on Thursday in Mugello that the decision on a possible customer team would be made during the Italian weekend. However, nothing official was ever presented.
Instead, Pramac team manager Gino Borsoi initially announced that his racing team would also use two Ducati factory motorcycles in 2025 and 2026, which meant that a switch to Yamaha seemed off the table. However, this deal has not been officially confirmed to date, which may be because MotoGP superstar Marc Marquez did not want to switch to Pramac Racing as a replacement for Jorge Martin as originally planned. Currently without a top rider, a switch to Yamaha could have become much more attractive for team founder Paolo Campinoti and could therefore still go ahead. “The risk of losing Pramac is real,” Ducati team boss Gigi Dall’Igna recently announced in an interview with ‘MotoGP.com’.
If the Italian racing team actually switches to Yamaha, they would need two new drivers. Pramac has not had its own drivers under contract in the past, but has been provided by Ducati. This was the case in 2024 with Jorge Martin and Franco Morbidelli. Yamaha and Pramac would certainly not be short of options; in addition to Fernandez, there are currently ten other MotoGP drivers without a contract for the coming season. It is unclear how good the 2022 Moto2 World Champion’s chances of a future at Pramac Yamaha actually are. However, he is said to be a contender – and that currently seems more so than at any other MotoGP team.