Jack Miller’s future in MotoGP remains uncertain as the 2025 season nears the end of the summer break.
Miller is out of contract with Pramac in 2025, having signed a one-year deal after he departed from KTM. He is now at risk of losing his spot in MotoGP after Toprak Razgatlioglu signed with Yamaha’s satellite team for 2026.
Miller is the favourite to stay at Pramac, with teammate Miguel Oliveira not meeting a performance clause in his contract. It could see the Portuguese rider lose his seat before his deal expires in 2026.
But the Tuscany-based team are still weighing up their options for next season, which could see the Aussie move elsewhere. Miller’s ‘natural landing place’ could be Yamaha’s WSBK team, with the 30-year-old being linked with several outfits in the category.
It has also been suggested that Miller could replace Alex Rins at the factory Yamaha team in 2026 and partner with Fabio Quartararo. However, that may not be as likely as previously thought.
Photo by Mark Wieland/Getty ImagesYamaha are ‘just not going to’ terminate Alex Rins’ contract due to how ‘expensive’ it is
Reports say that ‘all’ of Yamaha’s sponsors would back Miller replacing Rins, with the Spaniard struggling for results in 2025. He is still suffering the effects of his leg injury back in 2023, having finished inside the top 10 only once this season.
While Miller has outperformed the Spaniard, he has been dealt a huge blow in his bid to join the factory team. Rins is on a £1.8m-a-year contract at Yamaha until 2026, which, as journalist Val Khorounzhiy notes, would be ‘expensive’ to terminate.
Speaking via The Race MotoGP YouTube channel, he says the situation would be ‘too much of a hassle’ for Yamaha: “Not only is that difficult to imagine in the current MotoGP landscape with not so many places on the grid, but they’re just not going to terminate Rins’ contract in advance.
“It’s probably too expensive, too much of a hassle, too much of a, just a difficult situation. You don’t really have to do it when you don’t have a rider who must be in there.
“Yamaha will take the hit when it needs to. I mean, it wasn’t a contract termination, but Yamaha was the manufacturer who shifted Valentino Rossi out of the factory team in favour of Fabio Quartararo.
“That was Fabio Quartararo, you had to do it. Jack Miller has done a reasonable job, but you don’t have to do it.”
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Photo by Hazrin Yeob Men Shah/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesYamaha’s V4 bike is hoped to help Alex Rins start the ‘rebuilding process’ in MotoGP
Yamaha have shown strong signs of improvement in 2025, with Quartararo having grabbed four pole positions. The manufacturer are set to introduce their V4 bike for the 2026 season, which is hoped will turn their fortunes around.
Journalist Simon Patterson says it is also hoped that the new machine will be a major boost for Rins and help him regain his ‘mojo’ after his crash in 2023.
“It’s also worth noting, with big changes coming within Yamaha in the next six months, that Alex Rins has actually done something that Fabio Quartararo hasn’t done in MotoGP,” he said.
“He’s won a MotoGP race on a V4 bike. So there is an element of hoping, I think that the change to the new bike for next season, which is looking quite likely to happen at this point, is something that’s going to give Rins a bit of a boost again.
“It’s going to help him find his mojo again and maybe help him start that rebuilding process.
“But beyond that, I mean, the guy just looks fairly tightly locked in in terms of contract and Yamaha are not really the manufacturer that is quick to jump at making changes like that.”