Pramac rider Jack Miller has revealed he has been using Ducati’s new ride height adjustment device since last year’s MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix in October.
Ducati introduced a holeshot device to its bike last year – though Miller had been racing it since the 2018 Motegi race – which allows the rider to lower the rear of the bike on the grid to assist the start.
An evolution of that was first thought to have been in use by Miller at Sepang last season, with Suzuki’s Alex Rins saying that he noticed the Pramac GP19 squatting exiting onto straights.
On-track footage on motogp.com from the Qatar test on Saturday confirmed it was in use by Ducati riders, with team boss Davide Tardozzi later admitting the manufacturer did have the device.
Speaking on Sunday after ending the second day of testing 15th, Miller spoke about the device further and revealed that it was the cause of his stall on the grid just before the start of last year’s Thailand GP.
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“All I’m going to say is I’ve had it on since Thailand last year – it’s proven it works,” Miller said when asked about the device.
Asked if it was hard to use, he added: “What happened in Thailand last year? Remember what happened?
“Not simple, not simple at all. That’s why people hit me with ,’Oh, why did you stall it there?’
“I can’t say why I stalled it. I had about 19,000 things to do, and it was all spur of the moment, like, ‘Oh, fuck what button was it again?’
“We’ve got it set up pretty well [now]. A lot of people clued onto it. Rins clued onto it in Sepang, he was onto me about.”
Miller said the device is “rather easy” to operate now, but revealed it was not used at Phillip Island.
The circuit’s first corner is too fast to use the standard holeshot device, which disengages via hard braking force.
Commenting on the new device’s main advantage, Miller said: “Accelerating.
“It’s just launch control, but out of a corner.”