With his own title hopes effectively over, Jack Miller is prepared to help team-mate Francesco Bagnaia's MotoGP title challenge in the 🌠remaining rounds.

Bagnaia, who won his first MotoGP race last Sunday at Arago🎐n, is ꧑now second in the world championship but still 53 points from Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo.

Miller has won tw🃏o races for Ducati this season but also suffered three non-scores leav🌌ing him fifth and 85 points from the top. There are five rounds and a potential 125 points to go, starting this weekend at Misano.

"I'd love to get myself on the rostrum [riders' title top 3]," Miller said at Misano on Thursday. "I need to keep plugging away at it and try to take the best out of any si🍎tuation we get.

"Pecco's doing a fantastic job and caught back some decent points on Fabio the other day, so it's definitely not out of the question for him. And, as I've said all along; I'm here, I'm a team player and I'm happy to hel🦩p out whichever way I can.

"Not saying anything bad or anything like that, but if I can see an opportunity to try and help Pꦺecco I'll definitely try and do that and that's our plan. At the end of the day, we are here to try and get the big red beast on top."

Ducati vs. Yamaha for Teams' and Constructors' titles

While Bagnaia still faces a formidable task in 💜the riders' title, Ducati leads Yamaha by eight points in the constructors' standings and has closed to within 19-points of Monster Yamaha in the teams' championship.

With those battles🌌 in mind, Miller was asked h♔ow he feels about the Petronas-to-Monster Yamaha team switch for Franco Morbidelli.

The Italian began this season at the satellite team, but has now been moved to the Factory outfit as a full-time replacement for Maverick Vinalꦚes. That also means Morbidelli upgrades from the 2019 bike he started the season on, to the ex-Vinales 2021 factory-spec.

✨Putting aside Morbidelli's fitness following knee surgery, with Quartararo the only Monster Yamaha rider to score points in the three rounds since Vinales' exit, the arrival of title runner-up Morbidelli and his machinery upgrade means - on paper - Ducati now faces a tougher task in the teams' and constructors' than if Morbidelli had to finꦬish the season at Petronas (due to the engine rules, see below).

ltxcn.top has been told that Morbidelli's🐬 team switch was given the green light since Vinales' is no longer under contract to Yamaha (and now racing for Aprilia), meaning Morbidelli's move was treated as a normal rider-replacement situation.

Nonetheless, it raises interesting questions givenꦰ the rules covering engine s🐠pecification and engine use.

Engine use

The MotoGP rules state "Each rider must nominate, before the first event of the season, one specification of approved engine to be used exclusively for the season."

Until now the only circumstances in which a full-time rider has changed engine specification during a season is by changing thei🐻r brand of bike, for example when Johann Zarco left KTM and finished the season at LCR H🐽onda.

It has never been allowed, for example, for a satell෴ite rider using an older engine spec to be upgraded to his factory's newest spec engine during a racing s♊eason.

Morbidelli's situation is thus the first𝔍 time that a 'contracted' MotoGP rider when changing teams remains with the same factory and upgrades his engine spec mid-season.

The move and engine upgrade also benefits (on paper) that factory's chances of winning the teams' and constructors'ಞ tꦚitles.

Engine allocation

Five engine changes are allowed per rider, per season (seven for concession m♕an🉐ufacturer Aprilia).

But because the number of engine changes is fixed to the bike not r🌌ider, the MotoGP rule makers know that shuffling riders within a team or🐎 factory line-up mid-season could be used to dodge penalties for extra engine changes.

For example, if a factory's leading rider wa😼s ru🎃nning low on engines after technical issues, by swapping that rider's official entry with a team-mate, or moving the rider into a satellite team, they could leave their engine problems behind by taking over another bike's engine allocation.

As such, the MotoGP rules state: "A replacement rider may not be a rider currently contracted in the Championship, unless approved by the Grand Prix Commission to avoid that such substitution may be motivated by reasons other than sporting or medical (circumventing engine allocation rules, etc.)."

Miller admitted a rider switching tea🅠ms mid-season for the same factory might be something to look at, but doesn't think winning the Triple Crown was Yamaha's motivation for the move and he's just happy to see Morbidelli back in action.

"Nah, I don’t think so," Mill𒉰er replied, when asked if he thought Ducati now faced a bigger disadvantage in its fight with Yamaha due to the Yamaha reshuffle. "I think if we have to look at anything [it would be th🦹e] in-house switching, I can understand a complete swap of manufacturers is different. But it is what it is.

"It's good to have sort of everyone back on the grid apart from poor old Sava [Sav🐻adori, ankle fracture]. That's a positive thing.

"I could be wrong but I don’t feel Franky as a threat [in the teams' and constructors' titles] let's sa💞y. At this point he's had quite a bit of time off. He's nursing an injury. And I don’t think even Monster Y🌟amaha are putting any pressure on him to do results.

"They are just happy to have him here and get him up to speed on where the 2021 bike has developed [over the 2019] for next season. It makes sen꧂se from that standpoint. I don’t think it has much to do with the championship side o⛦f things. But you never know…

"Our main focus is just t🏅o keep doing what we, Ducati, are doing. We're doing a fantastic job. I ๊could have pulled my weight a little bit more at some point this year but anyway we've got some really good points.

"I was looking at the championship standings after Aragon aꦺnd to see the team creeping closer and closer to Monster Yamaha is really nice and hopefully we can keep doing that because it'd be lovely.

"Already the constructors' title last year for Ducati was massive, so to get [t⛎he constructors' again and also give] Ducati Lenovo the teams' championship would be fantastic."