Source: Supplied.

Australia’s Jack Miller will transfer to the Marc VDS Racing Team in the 2016 MotoGP World Championship for the second of his three-year Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) agreement.

Miller’s current crew, headed by experienced Chief Engineer Cristian Gabarrini, will join the North Queenslander in the Marc VDS Racing Team for the new season.

“I am very enthusiastic on this possibility with Honda and the Marc VDS Racing Team,” Miller commented. “I know Marc VDS is a good, strong and experienced team, and they can build a good structure for me to fight for good positions next year.

“As we both have already one year of experience from the top class, I feel that we can gain from the experiences we have to achieve good results together with Honda.”

Team principal Michael Bartholemy welcomed Miller to the team, in which he will ride alongside Tito Rabat as he makes his MotoGP debut on a factory RC213V in Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS colours.

“It’s good to be able to finally welcome Jack to the Marc VDS Racing Team,” Bartholemy said. “We wanted Jack in 2013 because we could see he had the talent to succeed and that hasn’t changed. This was always going to be a difficult transition season for him, having jumped straight onto the MotoGP bike from Moto3, but he’s done a solid job so far.

“Next year Jack will benefit from having the Marc VDS Racing Team behind him and, together with a competitive bike, I’m confident that this is exactly what he needs to realise his full potential.”

Marc VDS Racing Team president Marc van der Straten also said Miller was a great addition to the team, a year after they had anticipated him joining their title-winning Moto2 effort.

“We are happy to welcome Jack to the Marc VDS family, even if he is 12 months late arriving!” van der Straten explained. “He comes to the team with a year of experience in MotoGP and I expect to see him well inside the top 10 on a regular basis next season.

“For the team it is good to have two riders in the premier MotoGP class. They can learn from each other but, equally importantly, they can push each other every weekend. Both Jack and Tito are ultra-competitive and I expect we’ll see some exciting battles between the two of them next season!”