Miller more at ease on Ducati than 'knife-edge' Honda

The Aussie has now enjoyed a couple of outings on the Ducati GP17, his showing at the three-day Sepang test particularly impressive as he dipped under two minutes and finished up fifth-quickest.

Reflecting on the successful Malaysian test, Miller reckons he already feels 'in control' of the Ducati in a way that he never did with the Honda.

"The main difference for me is that I feel more in control of this bike than I ever did with the Honda, because the Honda felt like it was on a knife-edge the whole time," he wrote in a column for the Red Bull website.

"Most of the time on the Honda for the last couple of years I didn't feel like I had much margin to play with and maybe be able to use to get that last little bit of laptime out, but on this bike I'm more controlling it, you could say.

"The way to get those last tenths off seems like it's more in my hands, and the better laptimes are coming more easily to me in some ways.

"I don't feel like I have to go crazy or ride over the edge to get a laptime out of it, which is a huge positive.

"The Honda was pretty good in the change of direction stuff, but would always want to pop the front wheel coming out of the slow-speed corners. The Ducati seems to handle those a lot easier, so I'm having to change my approach on how to ride, but that's a good thing."

No excuses for 2018

Writing about his expectations for the upcoming season, Miller made it clear that his primary goal is staying fit. If he can do that, his focus is on breaking the 100-point barrier.

And with hopes that his single-year deal will lead to something even bigger and better for 2019, Miller reckons there are no excuses for not hitting fulfilling his pre-season promise.

"There's no excuses for me this year," he added.

"It's my fourth year now so none of this is new. I'm in a different team and on a different bike, and there's a lot of the grid out of contract at the end of this year, including me.

"So it's a big one for me to get right. I feel it's started well and the getting used to the new bike couldn't have gone much smoother, so definitely a case of so far, so good.

"Last year I set my goal of finishing inside the Top 10 for the season and didn't quite make it, but it's hard to factor in things like injuries and whatnot, and I had to miss one race with the broken leg and wasn't 100 percent for a few of the others.

"So staying injury-free is the first goal, and breaking 100 points for the season for the first time is one too. Whatever happens after that, I'll take it."