Data Analysis Fundamentals: 2. Set Reference Lap
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2. Set Reference Lap
02.48
| 00:00 | - While there's many different ways we can analyse a driver's performance, for this course we want to focus on simple to use and easy to apply techniques. |
| 00:09 | Essentially the low hanging fruit of data analysis. |
| 00:12 | For this reason, we're going to be relying heavily on comparing your driving to the data from a reference lap. |
| 00:18 | Initially we'd recommend getting a professional driver or driving coach to generate a reference lap for you, particularly if you're a novice driver with limited experience. |
| 00:28 | This may result in a lap time that's several seconds faster than the current lap times you're generating yourself and while this can be a little depressing, it shows what your car is capable of and from the data you'll know where to focus your efforts. |
| 00:41 | If you won't have access to a driving coach or professional driver, then another option is to find someone you're racing with who has proven to be faster than you and put them in your car for a session. |
| 00:52 | All you need at this stage is a reference lap that's faster than what you're currently achieving yourself. |
| 00:57 | As you can experience you'll be able to use your own personal best lap at a particular racetrack as a reference lap to help improve your driving. |
| 01:06 | The principles are exactly the same regardless of where your data has come from. |
| 01:10 | There are a couple of considerations we need to keep in mind when generating a quality reference lap that's going to be useful for us. |
| 01:17 | The first and hopefully most obvious is that the reference lap needs to be set with similar track conditions. |
| 01:24 | This can be tricky since a racetrack will naturally evolve in its grip levels as a race weekend progresses and the track rubbers in. |
| 01:32 | It should however go without saying that using a dry reference lap on a wet racetrack isn't going to to much benefit. |
| 01:38 | Another aspect to consider is the mecahnical setup of the car. |
| 01:42 | If we want to compare apples with apples, then the car setup should be identical so that we're only comparing the driver's performance and nothing else. |
| 01:51 | This means that ideally such as alignment, tyre pressures and even fuel load should be the same. |
| 01:58 | Of course as you progress in your driving you may want to focus on a particular setup change to see how it affects the car's performance. |
| 02:05 | But at least when you're just starting out, it's safe to say that there will be plenty of time to find in the driver before we worry about changing the car setup. |
| 02:14 | The actual process of generating a reference lap is just a case of finding a suitable lap that you want to use as a reference from a particular log file. |
| 02:22 | Each logging system will have its own specific technique for setting a reference. |
| 02:26 | lap and you also may have the option of automatically updating the reference lap if you happen to go faster. |
| 02:33 | You can refer to the practical skills section of this course for more information. |
| 02:36 | If your logging system provides a visual display with a gain/loss function you should make sure that this is set up so you'll be able to make use of it while you're out on track. |
