Solely the eagle-eyed could spot it amid all of the human drama within the manufacturing facility Ducati staff pit, however there’s just a little technical ritual each time one among its MotoGP bikes returns to the storage. As rapidly as doable after the rider dismounts, a cable hanging from the roof will get plugged into the thoroughbred GP25 in query.
It’s a tiny however essential piece of the jigsaw puzzle that made up the Ducati Lenovo Crew’s newest profitable MotoGP groups’ championship marketing campaign, which was sealed within the dash race in Indonesia final weekend. As a result of that modest-looking cable plugs that bike into a strong assist community – one which goes far past the confines of the pitbox.
A giant a part of that community, in reality, was on the opposite facet of the world whereas MotoGP was doing its factor on Lombok. The reams of knowledge that received downloaded from the bike after every run (F1-style reside telemetry isn’t allowed in MotoGP) weren’t only for the several-strong staff of engineers behind the storage and within the paddock places of work.
Additionally they received whizzed over to Italy, to the large Ducati manufacturing facility at Borgo Panigale outdoors Bologna, the place each Ducati’s highway and race bikes are constructed. There, the crew on the Ducati Lenovo Distant Storage was ready to pounce.
And you may take ‘pounce’ nearly actually. The crew on the manufacturing facility, which has all of the Lenovo computing energy wanted to course of round 100 gigabytes of knowledge each race weekend, could make a contribution even earlier than Marc Marquez or Francesco Bagnaia heads out for his subsequent run.
“The Ducati Lenovo Remote Garage is a crucial point,” says David Attisano,Ducati Corse’s head of knowledge evaluation – racing and R&D. “As a result of they’re in a distinct atmosphere. So the state of affairs is extra calm; it’s steady. You don’t have the noise of the bikes and so forth. They’ll make some evaluations another way and from a distinct perspective.
“They also have the capability of all our infrastructure. They can run a lot of simulations on our High Performance Computing (HPC) to understand if there is a combination of parameters that could be better than the current one and that can improve the performance. And they can suggest some modifications to the engineers.”
Marc Marquez, Ducati Crew
Picture by: Qian Jun / MB Media by way of Getty Photos
The outstanding turnaround time can’t be emphasised sufficient, significantly given the frenetic nature of the fashionable MotoGP weekend format.
“The system helps us to have timely answers,” continues Attisano. “As a result of it is vitally troublesome these days to present solutions to the rider in good time. As a result of there are solely a few minutes from when the rider comes after which goes out once more.
“With the sprint race, the time to practice and do something that works better is very, very little. Friday Practice is really a qualification session, so we only have two real free practice sessions.”
It’s all about harnessing know-how in a means that sends the staff down the best path when there isn’t time to attempt all of them.
“During the race weekend, because we have to have an immediate answer, the technology is so important,” provides Ducati Corse sporting director Mauro Grassilli.
“We have very fast communication between the box and the Ducati Lenovo Remote Garage. Because sometimes it’s not easy to have a fast answer to a question here. From a comfortable situation at the factory, it’s easier compared to here at the track.”
Launched in the course of the pandemic in 2020 to permit engineers at HQ to work in actual time alongside the crew on the monitor, the Distant Storage rapidly grew to become a key innovation within the Ducati Lenovo partnership. And it has developed right into a everlasting hub for high-level technical assist.
Mauro Grassilli, Ducati Corse sporting director
Picture by: Ducati Corse
Utilizing Lenovo’s superior computing, {hardware} and infrastructure, the Distant Storage permits split-second information evaluation from the bikes, together with engine efficiency, environmental parameters and electronics. It additionally runs complicated aerodynamics simulations and situation testing.
All of this functionality doesn’t simply imply discovering methods to go quicker. Phrase from the Distant Storage has, on at the least one event this yr, led to a late bike swap when a possible reliability downside was – rightly, because it turned out – detected again at base.
Like Grassilli, Attisano has been with Ducati since 2004, when a weekend’s value of knowledge was a measly 50 megabytes. Watching information and computing’s evolution since then, and significantly since Lenovo got here on board as a associate in 2018, has given him a real appreciation of what it has meant to MotoGP’s champion squad.
“Technology has augmented our perspective,” concludes Attisano. “Because we are thinking things now that were impossible before.”
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