I personally rate the Aprilia better than the ktm. Strictly because we are seeing 3 riders with the potential of winning on it Espargaro, Mav, and Olivera. I am curious as to how you rate the ktm compaired to the Aprilia.
Totally bias hat on here so let me go for a moment
Like Mike, I have never believed that Miller is a World Championship winner which is nothing to diminish his talent or his capability as in reality, most riders who race in the top class never win a race, never mind a world title so just to be there is awesome and to be a race winner sets him at a higher level than many.
Now, you rate Aprilia better than KTM yet Jack is only 20 or so points from Espargaro who is mainly in front due to his Dutch and british results so in that way Jack aint doing to bad on a bike you say is not the equal of Aprilia. On top, he is in front of Vinales and well in front of Oliviera but I do not measure Oliviera as that poor guy has been a human bowling pin for to many this season so his results are massively below what they would otherwise have been.
Jack's results are actually very comparable to most in the field when you look at race finishing position (ie. JM has 1 outside top 10, Binder x 2, Aliex x 1, Vinales x 2 and Alex Marquez who is below JM in the points ahs 0 non-top 10) but unfortunately for Jack, the fact he starts higher and drops is what brings the attention. Jack's worst result aside from the 15th just gone is 8th and when you look at season to date only Jorge Martin has not finished 8th or lower this season (and that is finsihed - not DNF/DNS). So when you look at finishing positions year to date he is comparable to near all other riders with exception of the top 2, overall not that bad by comparison.
His issue is seriously consistency as where most riders go forward, he generally goes forward early and then settles to that mid-level 4 - 7 which personally, is around where I feel he belongs. He is not a top 3 championship rider but he is in the next level when you look at history of results.
Mostly agree, but being on the second best bike does not necessarily allow many podiums if there are 8 guys on the best bike. I tend to think MM and maybe FQ could get better results on the KTM though.
As I said, we mostly agree as is not unusual. Jack is not and has never been championship material unfortunately, and with the welath of talent Red Bull has in the pipeline let alone the talent on substandard bikes from other manufacturers it is hard to justify him being on that bike. I tend to agree with others that the KTM is a strange bike, no one other than Binder is really prospering, and the satellite KTM has been a career killer for well performed moto 2 riders. The Aprilia may be more genrally rideable, again as others are saying. It would be interesting to see MM or FQ on either the KTM or the Aprilia..
This is an interesting aside. You are right that Binder is the one that is taking it to the next level and really, he has been consistent for a few years.
In 2021 and 2022 both he and oliviera won races on the bike but both years Binder finished 6th in the title chase through consistent results with Oliviera 14th and 10th the last 2 years although Pol 's 2020 results of 5th in teh chase should not be overlooked totally as his consistency was very good (allowing for the Covid year and shortened title)
IMO only, but Binder is under-rated as to me he is capable of riding around crap to get a result and will push extremely hard but at the same time is extremely capable of managing the 'on the edge' riding that I personally feel Jack just cannot achieve (consistently)
It will be a long time of the Duke on top...how many of us will still be around?
I couldn't even finish this last race....
Ducati will be here or near the top for some time but that is part of the cycle of the sport itself.
Sometimes manufacturers dominate and then have a lull period before they come back and dominate again. That said, Ducati have taken things to a level that HRC as an example did not and that is by Ducati seemingly and genuinely having equal machinery on a model year basis. No bike made available to a satellite that is not quite that of equal to the factory at the start and an open sharing of data - they should be proud rather than damned (and I say that as someone who desperately wants another manufacturer to challenge consistently).
We need to accept and acknowledge that we may well just be in an era where the bike and the rider are in such synchronicity.
Maybe we should just enjoy for what it is?
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