Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner left an incredible legacy as Aussie riders in MotoGP, and now the hugely-popular Mi🎶ller carries the torch.

But he insists that his early days - and skipping from Mꦯoto3 straight into the premier class where he rode for Honda and Ducati before KTM - were fraught with the neไed to live up to the legends of the past.

“Th🙈ere is always a lot of criticism and it comes with the territory of being a littl𝓀e bit outspoken,” Miller told .

“If you put yourself out there, there are positiveꦐs and negatives. Generally more pos꧑itives but there is a lot of doubt.

“Is it the Australian thing? Coming a💙fter a lot of successful riders, the only ones that have made it have been super-successful world champions.

💖“Theirs are big boots to fill so there is extra pressure and expectation.

“Now not so much, but in the past I had to prove myself more to get a bump up in job, or to continue my job, or to move up the𓆏 ladder.

“I’ve been constantly working my way up the peckinඣg order.”

Miller swapped his factory Ducati seat to join꧒ KTM this season, and heard the whispers of critics even before his first race.

“It was alread💧y happening as I was signing the contract!

“The comment I read was ‘he’ll be moving to WorldSBK’ - like tha🐎t’s a 🍬bad thing?

“They try to use that as an insult.

“Let’s give it a cr♒ack and see what happens! A chan🍷ge was what I felt that I needed.

“Throughout winter testing I heard ‘maybe h💖e’s not getting along…’”

'I'm an idiot, a bit of a clown! People enjoy a character'

Miller is now one of the🍃 most popular names and faces on the༺ MotoGP grid.

“I’m at the point where I don’t really care,”𓃲 he said about his uniqueꦅ personality. 

“I have my opinion. If you ask and it’s what you like, good. If it’s not? That’s your problem, not m🐼ine.

“I feel complete in t♏erms of where I’m at in my racing career. I’ve done alright, bᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚetter than I imagined.

“I was a cocky kid but, deep down, you never know. There have been points iꦬn my career where I thought I’d be heading home shortly, to get a job!

“People enjoy a charact𝐆er. That’s 🔯who I am, at the end of the day.

“An idiot, a bit of a clown! But I’m real. I’l﷽l happily give everyone my time.

“I remember being a fan watching guys like Valentino Rossi get mobbed. It’s cool to push the next generation on, and to show🉐 them🐻 that you don’t have to be a robot! Or to be a certain way to succeed.”

Miller has been on the MotoGP podium with three d༺ifferent manufacturers.

This year he has been part of KTM’s impressivꦕe push, finishing third in Spain.

This weekend, the Austria🎃n MotoGP, is KTM’s home ꦕrace.

“I feel like I’m getting better,” Miller said.

“I don’t get flustered๊ or stressed as much. I still take the job as seriously as I ever did, but with the experience that you gain, you become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

“A younger me would be a lot more stressed.”

He assessed his season so far: “Six out of 10. I was happy with the sprint races in Germany and Jerez. But there were moments, in Ausဣtin, I felt strong but then I dumped it.

“In Assen, I felt good on Friday, again d☂umped it when I felt that we could do something decent.

“There have been a lot of ‘what ifs’.

“You can’t get too overly stressed about🍬 it. When you’re lea🦩rning a new bike, what it wants…

“You try to make it second-nature and the only way to do that is to 𒅌push it.”