Saturday, February 28, 2015
MOTOGP Rookie Jack Miller Concludes Three Day Sepang Test
Australian rising star gets some time on the RC213V-RS Open class Honda before winter break
After coming up just two points short of the Moto3 World Championship at the season-ending Valencia race, Australian Jack Miller put that disappointment behind him as he quickly moved on the next chapter of his racing career—signing with HRC to ride for Lucio Cecchinello’s CWM LCR Honda MotoGP team.
At the Valencia post-season test last week, Miller was able to get some orientation laps on the previous RCV1000R Open class machine before rain interrupted much of the proceedings. But this week at Sepang in a private test, Miller was able to spend the greater part of three days getting in a total of 120 laps at the Southeast Asian circuit on the new RC213V-RS Open class bike that is basically last year’s works Honda without the pneumatic valves and seamless transmission while using the spec Marelli software and larger fuel tank permitted by the rules.
The 19-year-old Miller is considered one of the rising stars of Grand Prix racing, enough that HRC decided to snap him up right out of Moto3 without any time in the conventional path of a season or two of training in Moto2.
Honda also thinks highly enough of him to assign former two-time MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner’s former crew chief Cristian Gabarrini to help develop the young Aussie’s talent. Part of that development involved keeping things simple for Miller in the beginning, meaning not introducing any electronic controls until he was able to understand the power potential in his right wrist. At Sepang, those electronics were gradually introduced so that Miller could understand where they could help and where they couldn’t, as well as the limits of the Bridgestone tires.
Miller did find some of those limits, fortunately in one of the slower corners at Sepang. “We had a small crash in the morning, but it was nothing serious and there was no real damage to the bike, as it was at slow speed carrying a bit too much lean angle over a couple of bumps,” admitted Miller. Despite the crash, he made significant progress, dropping two seconds off his first day lap time to end the test with a 2:02.9 lap.
“In general I was really happy with how the bike went, we made more improvements today and every time I get on it I feel more and more comfortable, and that means I’m getting faster and faster. All in all, I would say I’m very happy how the bike worked during the whole test. It has been positive,” said Miller afterward.
"I’m looking forward to the off-season now, and I’ll be training hard and getting my body in the physical condition needed for MotoGP. We managed a long run today and whilst it was really hard, my body stood up to it, so I look forward to coming back even stronger in February.” Part of that off-season will include surgery to remove four loose screws in his collarbone from an old racing injury. The procedure will be performed at the Dexeus University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, by the renowned Dr. Xavier Mir from MotoGP Medical Team, who has worked on numerous MotoGP riders in the past.
Millers teammate on the CWM LCR Honda team will be hard-charging Brit Cal Crutchlow, who will be riding the customer version of the RC213V factory bike. Because Miller is entering his first year in MotoGP, he was allowed to test at Sepang; Crutchlow will be riding a Factory class bike, and thus was subject to the winter testing ban.
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