Professional Motorsport Data Analysis: Analyse Driver
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Analyse Driver
03.22
| 00:00 | - Now that we know everything is looking healthy with the car, we can move onto improving the performance. |
| 00:06 | Like many parts of data analysis, this is about looking at our performance relative to a reference. |
| 00:13 | In the first instance, you should compare the fastest lap from the most recent run with your reference lap by overlaying the data which has ideally been set by a faster driver. |
| 00:24 | Start by looking at the time variance channel relative to your reference data. |
| 00:28 | You'll want to focus on the areas where the variance shows the biggest losses are occurring. |
| 00:33 | These will typically be on corner entry and exit with any losses on exit linearly increasing if there's a long straight section following that corner. |
| 00:42 | In addition to comparing the reference lap, you should also overlay the data from the previous run to check what improvements were made compared to what you plan to work on in the most recent run. |
| 00:53 | It's not practical to fix every part of the track at once so you should pick the 3 greatest time losses and note them down. |
| 01:01 | This is also a good time to make notes on the driver feedback. |
| 01:05 | What parts of the tack felt good, where the car felt weak and if there are any issues with the driver controls etc. |
| 01:12 | You should also discuss and make note of any improvements that were made for the most recent run. |
| 01:18 | Now find the 3 points on track that you noted from the variance in the speed traces. |
| 01:22 | The difference in the speed traces gives you some more context about what the car is doing at the points of greatest loss. |
| 01:29 | Whether the losses are from braking early or happening later in the trail braking zone for example. |
| 01:36 | If the losses are happening in braking, start by comparing the point the throttle is lifted, where the brakes are applied, how hard they are applied initially and the general shape of the brake traces. |
| 01:47 | Check the steering input relative to the brake pressure to understand the difference in trail braking technique. |
| 01:53 | To check for stability and balance issues, look at the steering trace. |
| 01:56 | As we discussed in the cornering performance section of this course, the steering trace tells us a lot of the story of how the car is behaving and what the balance looks like. |
| 02:07 | When looking at mid corner balance, make use of an XY plot with steering angle and lateral G force to see if too much steering angle is being used. |
| 02:16 | On corner exit, look for the difference on how the throttle is being applied. |
| 02:21 | Where the first throttle crack is happening in the corner, as well as how aggressively and how steady it's being used. |
| 02:28 | Make use of the throttle histogram to help summarise trends over an entire lap. |
| 02:34 | Check if the tyres are being overloaded by using an XY plot with longitudinal G force and slip ratio estimate. |
| 02:41 | Next, use the XY plot of lateral vs longitudinal G force to understand how the car is being exploited relative to the reference lap. |
| 02:50 | Start by looking at the maximums along the lateral and longitudinal axes, then look at the areas between the axes to see how well the driver is doing with combined loads. |
| 03:00 | Throughout all of this process, make sure you're taking brief notes which you can now distill down into some actionable things for the driver to improve upon on the next run. |
| 03:10 | Remember to keep this to a maximum of 3 distinct technique changes in given parts of the track rather than overloading the driver or yourself with information. |
