Miller slams "unfair" MotoGP front ride height device ban

Jack Miller says the decision to ban front ride height devices in MotoGP from 2023 is “unfair” on Ducati, feeling the ruling is “a bit pick and choose” from the other manufacturers.

Ride height adjusters have been part of MotoGP’s technical landscape for the last few years in various forms, all of which were pioneered by Ducati.

The latest evolution was spotted in pre-season testing on the GP22 machinery, with Ducati incorporating a front ride height device onto its machinery – though the system needs much refinement, with only the satellite Pramac riders racing it so far in 2022.

But, after five of the six manufacturers held a meeting in Qatar and proposed to ban front ride height devices on cost and safety grounds, the Grand Prix Commission ratified this in March. As a result, the front ride height devices will be banned from 2023.

When asked about it on the eve of the Argentina Grand Prix on Thursday, Miller took issue with the ban.

“The ban is unfair in my opinion, even if we use it or not,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. It seems a lot of the other manufacturers… Ducati have spent money, time more than anything to develop this system and to make it work, to have it there.

“When you go and do that you take resources away from other areas of the bike that maybe you could spent the time and energy developing. In the end there’s not a clear, ‘we’re still developing here, but we develop over here’.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: MotoGP

“In the end of the day Ducati is not a massive company like some of the others and for them to basically complain and put in a rule like this, but say the rear [ride height device] is still okay because the other teams were trying to do that at the beginning and because they didn’t want to be behind us and develop.

“Now everybody has it, they want to keep it. So, for me that is not fair, you cannot pick and choose which rules you want and which you don’t want. You could still use the front ride height from the start, it doesn’t make sense to me and it’s a little bit pick and choose on the rules and I don’t agree with the ruling.

“We have it there, if we use it or we don’t, it’s up to us. But we have it and we have worked to develop it, the others can either try to catch up or not.

“It’s up to them, but you shouldn’t be able to tell a team what they can use and can’t use if it’s inside the rules. Don’t make up a rule to ban it.”

Ducati was thought to be one of the teams affected by the freight delays in Argentina, but Miller confirmed as of Thursday the factory squad had taken delivery of everything apart from its garage walls.