Yamaha boss ‘curious’ to see Jack Miller’s MotoGP move

Yamaha will closely monitor Honda’s gamble on fast tracking Jack Miller straight from Moto3 into the MotoGP world championship in 2015.

Aussie Miller will skip the normal route to MotoGP through the Moto2 class having signed a lucrative three-year deal with HRC, just five years after he took up road racing.

Miller will join the LCR Honda squad for the 2015 premier class campaign and he will ride a production Honda RC213V-RS machine after impressing HRC bosses with his challenge for the Moto3 world championship last season.

Miller is the first rider to make the huge leap from the entry-level class into MotoGP for over a decade.

And his move from the Red Bull KTM Moto3 squad has already been questioned by some sceptics, who believe it is too much to jump from a 55bhp single-cylinder 250cc four-stroke to a 270bhp 1000cc MotoGP bike.

Senior Yamaha boss Jarvis has likened Honda’s bold move on Miller to teenage Formula One sensation Max Verstappen, who will drive for the Toro Rosso in 2015 aged just 17.

And Jarvis said he is curious to see how the Miller ‘experiment’ unfolds.

The Yamaha boss told MCN: “It is going to be very interesting. Is it right or wrong? If you ask the people who are a little older in the sport then they are not convinced it is the way to go. But maybe Verstappan can do great things in F1 and Miller will do the same in MotoGP and this will be a game changer. I don’t know but I am very curious to see what happens with these two young guys.”

Jarvis doesn’t fear a successful move by Miller will make the intermediate Moto2 class irrelevant, with other young talents in the future potentially attracted to make the same big step from Moto3.

Jarvis added: “Miller’s move does not invalidate Moto2 but if one guy does it and is successful then it might change because more young guys will be ready to take the risk. But for a young rider, if you step up too soon and fail then you fall back into the doldrums before you get another chance.”