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News that Jack Miller is once again very much back in the good graces at Ducati after his contributions to Pecco Bagnaia’s crucially important victory at last weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix has raised the idea of a potentially unplanned new role for Miller within Ducati’s MotoGP project.
He was hired for 2021 with the aim of becoming the squad’s number one rider while less experienced team-mate Bagnaia learned the ropes, but the reality has been the opposite, with Miller remaining fast but inconsistent while it’s Bagnaia who is the only man left standing to challenge Fabio Quartararo for the championship.
Should Miller’s place at Ducati now involve another role, that of loyal wingman rather than team leader, it wouldn’t be the worst situation imaginable for him – and would give him the chance to add his name to a rather prestigious list of names who’ve done the exact same thing during their own MotoGP career.
Dani Pedrosa
It’s obviously impossible to start any feature on the greatest team-mates of the modern era without going directly to Dani Pedrosa, thanks to the work that the diminutive Spaniard did in his time with Repsol Honda.
Marc Marquez’s number two man from 2013 to 2018 and for five titles in six years, Pedrosa played the role to perfection, by winning the occasional few races every season, developing the bike in the background, and never getting in Marquez’s way.
Always competitive enough to pick up the pieces should anything go wrong, it’s fair to say that Honda didn’t realise how badly it needed him until it lost him for 2019 and then Marquez for 2020 – and went an entire season without a win for the first time in four decades.
Yet it’s worth remembering that Pedrosa wasn’t always the ideal team-mate – and in fact, he nearly cost Nicky Hayden a championship in 2006, when he collided with the American at Estoril, wiping him out of the race and seemingly ending his title charge until a rare Valentino Rossi mistake at the final race tipped the scales back in the other direction.
Nicky Hayden
But before there was Pedrosa at Repsol Honda and before he was ready to win titles of his own, there was Hayden, who joined MotoGP directly from AMA Superbikes alongside Rossi in 2003, and proved to be exactly what Rossi needed.
A rookie who took on some of the marketing duties (something Rossi’s previous Japanese team-mates were less capable of to an English-speaking audience), he let Rossi get on with the business in hand – winning.
Ironically, he also acted as a loyal wingman to Pedrosa in their latter years together too, with the animosity of 2006 soon forgotten as Hayden worked with Pedrosa to try (although ultimately fail) to secure a title in the 800cc era of machines.
Like all good numbers two, Hayden showed that he was capable of upping the ante when it was needed, and proved Honda correct in putting its faith in him by winning once Rossi departed for Yamaha.
Valentino Rossi
It might seem slightly strange to see Valentino Rossi on a list of number two riders, but that is arguably what he was to Jorge Lorenzo when he returned to Yamaha following his brief (and ultimately doomed) foray at Ducati in 2011 and 2012 – and having the Italian in the other side of the garage made Lorenzo a better rider.
While the outright hatred that saw a literal wall built between them earlier in their careers had faded somewhat by 2013, there was still plenty of antagonism among the pair – but Lorenzo fed off it rather than be cowed by it, and it clearly added even further to the motivation to beat the then-rising star Marquez.
Of course, that all came to a head in 2015 and the infamous Sepang incident.
But with a title on the line between only Rossi and Lorenzo at that point, there is no question that Lorenzo was even more motivated than had it been against Marquez.
Nicky Hayden (again)
While Nicky Hayden will always be remembered in Repsol Honda colours, he spent just as long in Ducati red – and there’s a case to be made for saying that he played a far bigger role there than he did at the Japanese team.
The forbearer to much of the rapid improvements that came about only after his departure, it was Hayden who was experimenting with frameless motorbikes and carbon fibre chassis components while the likes of Casey Stoner and Rossi got on with the business of winning (or at least trying to win, in Rossi’s case).
He wasn’t there to reap what he had sown, with Andrea Dovizioso taking over from him and soon managing to turn the Desmosedici into a winning machine thanks in part to Hayden but with zero fanfare for him.
Alex Rins
If there’s one rider in MotoGP who doesn’t get enough credit for his skills on the development front, it’s Alex Rins. The Suzuki star has taken the GSX-RR, largely alone, from a back of the grid machine to a championship winner, and while it was Joan Mir and not him who got to pick up the trophy last year, Rins deserves his fair share of the credit.
When he joined the team as a rookie back in 2017, he was left to largely build a new bike himself. Alongside the inept Andrea Iannone, back then just starting to become more concerned about looks than speed, it was Rins who corrected the problems created by Iannone’s wrong choice of sealed engine, it was Rins who honed the bike, and eventually, it was Rins who was kept not Iannone.
And, luckily or unluckily depending on where you are on track if you’re Mir, he remains Suzuki’s fastest rider. Able to charge forward and lead races but all too prone to errors, it nonetheless pays off occasionally for him – or at least often enough that he remains its top-scoring race winner since Kenny Roberts Junior, a situation that takes the pressure off Mir nicely.
Aleix Espargaro
Bear with me on this, because right now Aleix Espargaro’s claim to the role is largely unsubstantiated – and will remain so unless Maverick Vinales starts impressing very quickly on the Aprilia in the coming months.
But the reality is, while he might be the number one rider in effect, Espargaro has largely been playing the role of number two for Aprilia, waiting on it to bring along someone else to take over with the excellent machine that the Spaniard has built for them.
He’s absolutely fast enough to deserve his place on the team, but he’s also unproven when it comes to winning MotoGP races. Now that Aprilia’s got someone who in theory can lead on track, it won’t be too much of a shock if Espargaro drops into second place at the Noale factory – but he won’t fall too far back, which should continue to motivate Vinales nicely.
