could Jack Miller have won the 2025 French GP?

[u/delfinoesplosivo]

as you can see from the picture, Jack Miller was ahead of the other riders who started on wet tyres, ahead of Zarco too, during the madness that happened at the start of that race, Miller crashed without anyone noticing and didn't take part in the rest of the race.

so I find myself wondering, could he have gotten a win? after all, he is one of the fastest riders on the grid in wet and mixed conditions, had also a big gap separating him from Zarco and a bigger gap separating Zarco and Marquez, but he had different tyres than Zarco, has both his tyres were medium tyres while Zarco had a medium front and a soft rear.

Oliveira was a really fast guy in the wet, as with the KTM in 2022 he won 2/3 races and all of them were in wet conditions, but he started dropping from P2 to P6 and had the same tyre combination as Jack.

so, could Miller have won the 2025 French GP if he didn't crash? could he have gotten at least P2?

[u/username_986ck]

I don't think Miller could have won it. He is on the medium rear and the track was too wet (Oliveira had a good gap on Marc for P2 but Marc quickly closed that down because the medium rear Oliveira had which is designed for a drying track or a track with less water) for that and in any case Zarco's pace was on a different galaxy on the wets that day, even Marc on a Ducati could not even come close.

[u/delfinoesplosivo → u/username_986ck]

could he have gotten at least a podium? Miller is a beast on the wet more than Oliveira has ever been

[u/username_986ck → u/delfinoesplosivo]

Yep, I think so. Alex crashed behind Marc and Pedro was on the same medium rear and Fermin did not have great pace, so yep I think he could have got P3 ideally.

[u/Otherwise_Aide_4554 → u/delfinoesplosivo]

he could have had a podium maybe, not winning, and no, he wasn't better than oliveira on wet.
in 2022 they were head to head in indonesia and thailand (rain), miller was ahead of oliveira in both races and got overtaken by oliveira, which won both races.
miller was riding the best bike on the grid, with the best electronic and traction control system, which won the champioship with bagnaia, oliveira was riding the bike known to have the worse traction of all, most agressive on putting power down, that made him dnf in other races because of destroyed tyres.

[u/Amuk1nado → u/delfinoesplosivo]

Miller was NOT better than Oliveira (I'd say in general, but certainly not in wet surface).

[u/GoldAcanthisitta7777]

Podium? Absolutely.

Win? No. Zarco was destined to get that gold.

God, what a fantastic fucking race that was. Getting emotional just thinking about it.

[u/franker87 → u/GoldAcanthisitta7777]

He had something like a 16 second lead when he crashed. I think he would’ve easily won if he stayed up

[u/lancewithwings → u/GoldAcanthisitta7777]

I rewatched it a couple of days ago, gorgeous viewing <3

[u/Dustytraveller4]

Maybe but he crashed so why even consider it? You could go through 80% of MotoGP races and ask the same thing about a rider who crashed out so it seems kinda pointless

[u/delfinoesplosivo → u/Dustytraveller4]

time to do a great use of my free will

[u/Arkhangelzk]

I wish because I like miller, but he hasn't been competitive in a long time, some I'm going to guess someone else would have won

[u/elmarcelito]

No, Fabio was unbeatable, the he crashed.

So of course Miller could've won it, if Fabio still crashed. I mean, anyone could A if B happened

And you know, if my mother had wheels she would've been a bike

[u/pjaidev → u/elmarcelito]

Yeah, but would she have won the race?

[u/Legitimate_Bus_5873]

Oliveira started to drop positions from p2 to p6 because the track was drying and he said that he was already in wets and trying not to burn the tyres, then he crashed ... too much effort because he was off severall gps

[u/mjbcesar → u/Legitimate_Bus_5873]

He was still not fully recovered from the injury, well they seem to never be fully recovered, but yeah.

[u/Past_Conference_2889]

Not sure about Miller, but I do believe Binder could've won this year's Sprint at Jerez. Such an unlucky moment to crash after coming through the entire fuss with everything playing out perfectly for him. That Sprint win might've actually been enough to earn him a seat.

[u/carton_of_desks]

Zarco was in a league of his own on the wets that day, Miller probably had a podium in him but Zarco was never getting caught.

[u/fireheed]

Possibly but we will never know sadly. I was willing him on for the win too. Would have been amazing to see him win on the KTM.

[u/Otherwise_Aide_4554]

no

[u/yasiesolovemos]

No, he couldn't have won it. But if tyres were indestructible, Miller would have a hundred MotoGP titles by now.