Jack Miller “embarrassed” after Austrian GP pace drops to ‘Bagger Cup times’

September 22, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

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Jack Miller has conceded that he felt “quite embarrassed” after his pace dropped to ‘Bagger Cup level’ in the Austrian Grand Prix.

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While all Yamaha riders struggled for performance in what was one of the worst races of the season for the Japanese marque, Miller’s woes were compounded by extreme degradation on his Michelin tyres.

The Australian’s pace fell off a cliff in the final five laps of the race, as he went from lapping in the mid-to-high 1m32s to 1m38s. He completed the final tour in 1m40.225s, which was a full eight seconds slower than the time race winner Pedro Acosta set on his way to the chequered flag.

For comparison, even Moto3 rider Max Quilles was able to lap in the 1m39s bracket for parts of Sunday’s race en route to another victory in the lightweight class.

Miller’s late-race drop was so severe that he crossed the finish line 20 seconds behind his team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu and almost a minute behind Acosta’s winning KTM.

Speaking afterwards, Miller said his rear tyre had deteriorated to such an extent that he could no longer use full throttle on Spielberg’s long straights.

“It's not a day I'm happy, or even want to think about. I’m quite embarrassed,” he said.

“I couldn't do anything from about lap 13-14 onwards. The bike was spinning in a straight line, can't do f**k all with it.

“I swapped to map 2 on lap 3, I was in the group. I understood around lap 14 that the tyre was really starting to light up in a straight line in third, fourth gear.

“So I swapped to map 3, which was meant to be like a back-up map. I hung in there until about seven to go on the back of Toprak, and then I was on the base rubber.

“There was a big old strip of base rubber about that wide in the centre, so I couldn't open the throttle on the straight. I had to be cautious going into corners because you're on the base rubber, so things start to spin around on you. Just circulated to finish the race.”

Jack Miller, Pramac Racing

Miller said he never considered pulling into the garage to retire, even though he felt his pace was no different to the times seen in Harley Davidson’s new Bagger Cup.

“I'm not a guy that parks it,” he said. “I was out there to do a job, the race isn't over until it's over. You never know if a red flag can fly or whatever. Better off being in it than not being in it.

“Yeah, it's embarrassing doing 1m1.38, it's f****g Bagger times, but at the end of the day, here to do a job and today the job was 21st f****g position.”

Miller struggles with special rear tyre casing

Michelin brought back the stiffer rear casing at Spielberg, a tyre construction it only uses at a handful of races during the year.

This special rear carcass impacted each rider and bike in different ways, with some reporting issues while others felt it suited them better.

Asked how he was affected by the new Michelins, Miller said: “I struggle a lot when I have this casing. But all of us struggle a lot with it in general, so it's always a bit of a b*****d.

“We've had this casing twice this year, in Thailand and here, and both times I finished with the strip about that wide out the centre of it. So I need to try and understand why, I try to do what I can to prepare the tyre, pick the bike up.

“It's almost counter-intuitive here because you pick the bike up and that's when it starts spinning when you get to the centre of the tyre.”

Electronic issues add to Yamaha's woes

Miller explained that Yamaha was also hampered with electronics problems at the Red Bull Ring, saying the result wouldn’t have been different even if the M1 had an additional 40bhp on tap.

“All weekend, we've been having an issue with electronics. It was a little better today but nothing to write home to mum about,” he said.

“We're not able to transfer that weight smoothly, so any sort of sharp input or whatever you have on this tyre, it upsets it and then it creates spin. And once the thing starts spinning, it doesn't recover and the lap time slowly but surely gets slower.

“The other guys, especially the Aprilia, are really able to transition the power really well and then use more power. We could have 40 more horsepower but we're not going to be able to use it because we're going to spin, especially with this casing.”

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