Jack Miller is very disappointed not to be able to work with Aki Ajo, who from 2025 will take on the role of team manager of KTM Factory Racing, from which the Australian rider is leaving at the end of the season.
It was confirmed on Monday that Ajo will leave the management of his team in Moto3 and Moto3 to replace current team manager Francesco Guidotti in the Austrian manufacturer’s official MotoGP team.
However, all this will happen when “Jackass” will take the opposite path to Ajo, who is also his manager, crossing the gates of Mattighofen on his way out, given that in 2025 he will race on a Prima Pramac Racing Yamaha.
Speaking on the eve of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, Miller said he believes Ajo’s arrival is a positive change for the factory KTM team, which will also welcome Pedro Acosta in his place next year.
“Aki doesn’t need this job. He doesn’t care, he just wants to win. He comes in with this mentality: he knows what he wants and that’s it. It’s either make or break. He has this kind of attraction and power. I know Aki has rejected the role on several occasions, but I think this is the right time. It will be interesting to see.”
Pit Beirer, KTM Motorsports Director, Aki Ajo
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Miller also underlined how sorry he is not to have the chance to work together with the Finnish manager: “Obviously I’m sorry. Working with Aki is something special, something I care a lot about. We’ve worked together for the last ten years, so working with him again he wouldn’t have been great in that kind of role.”
“What worries me most is working against him. I know how capable he can be as a team manager. I think he will be a good ‘bullet’ for KTM,” he added.
Miller then also spent some words on the current team manager Guidotti, with whom he had already worked in his first stint in Pramac, explaining that his departure a year before the expiration of the contract does not necessarily reflect the potential of the Italian manager.
“Francesco tried to fit into a role here, but it doesn’t seem to me that he was given the best tools, let’s say, to do what needed to be done. This is partly down to him, obviously, who should have protected himself and his role, but I don’t feel like he had a chance to do what needed to be done.”
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