As a departure from Ducati becomes more imminent, Jack Miller is in talks with the LCR Honda team to return in 2023.
The three-time MotoGP race winner joined LCR in 2015 after being signed to a three-year contract by Honda to join the team straight from Moto3, where he placed second in the championship in 2014.
Miller went to Marc VDS for the final two years of his Honda deal after a rough debut onboard the underpowered RC213V-RS open class bike.
Ducati hired him to join Pramac in 2018, before promoting him to the factory team last season.
Miller said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com at the Americas Grand Prix that Ducati had “kept him in the dark” about his future beyond 2022, and that no talks about a 2023 seat had taken place.
Jorge Martin and current championship leader Enea Bastianini are expected to join Francesco Bagnaia – who recently signed a new two-year agreement – in the factory squad in 2023.
Miller revealed after his third-place finish in the Austin race that he was open to returning to Pramac in 2023 if it meant staying with Ducati.
Miller is reportedly in talks to return to Honda and LCR, as racetrackmasters.com learnt during the Portuguese Grand Prix on Saturday. Over the previous two seasons, both of LCR’s current riders, Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami, have underwhelmed.
LCR’s MotoGP podium drought began with Cal Crutchlow’s second-place finish in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, and the team hasn’t won a race since Argentina 2018, again with Crutchlow at the helm.
So far, Nakagami has the team’s best finish of 2022, a tenth in Qatar, but neither rider has finished in the top ten since. Both seats at LCR appear to be available, with Nakagami’s Idemitsu-sponsored side of the garage built up expressly for a Japanese rider.
Ai Ogura, a young Japanese rider who has two podium finishes in Moto2 so far this season, is significantly tied to that ride. As a result, if Miller returns to LCR, it will almost certainly be at the expense of Marquez.
