The 2022 MotoGP season is the most globe-spanning in years, as races return to countries like Japan and Finland made impassable by pandemic-era travel restrictions starting in 2020. And a return to more race locations means more modeling, more data, and more complexity.
Ducati is ready for a running start, building on a foundation of tools first developed earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic when restrictions capped the number of people allowed to travel to races. These solutions are bolstering Ducati’s efficiency, driving critical gains in a year when Ducati is swimming in data, with eight bikes on the grid more than any other manufacturer.
“This year, we have more races, but also eight Ducati bikes on the grid, so we will have more data and less time between races for analysis, simulation, and set up,” said Gabriele Conti, Electronic Systems Director, Ducati. “On the other side we will have the opportunity to study and analyze a huge amount of data we haven’t had before coming from eight riders, so we will have more chance to optimize setups and make more accurate decisions.
Among these vital tools, aiding in decision-making is the Remote Garage, which originated in 2020 with the help of Lenovo technology. Creating a Remote Garage allowed information to flow effortlessly from the track to headquarters in Bologna and back even as the number of people allowed at the circuits was strictly limited.
“Thanks to the Lenovo technology, we were able to create the Remote Garage. Basically, our engineers who could not join us on the racetrack—were in the racing department connected live with the circuit, and they were able to work in a similar way to what they would have been able to do if they were present at the track,” said Paolo Ciabatti, Sporting Director, Ducati Corse.
After this first phase, Remote Garage continued to grow. The capacity for remote analysis, simulation, and team participation has grown, and engineers continue to work remotely on race weekends as well as during important pre-season tests, which are packed with components to check and validate. More communication means a smoother, more efficient process.
“Thanks to the Remote Garage technology, track engineers are more involved in the Team development and design process, increasing the info exchange and reducing development times. It seems quite normal today to have a meeting with 30 colleagues from the Official Team, the Development Team, and some engineers from their own house. This is a big advantage, and it will be in the future, too,” said Conti.
The Remote Garage is the latest development in an ongoing relationship built around innovation, one that’s expanding with the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure so that engineers can access powerful computing resources from anywhere and at any time. With more raw data to analyze than ever, easy access and collaboration are vital.
“The biggest challenge this season is to properly manage the information and data coming from four different teams – that means eight riders and bikes. At this stage, the Lenovo technology will be strategic to extract and make use of the relevant figures from this big an amount of data,” said Conti.
More than 50 sensors cover each Ducati MotoGP bike and track everything from speed to grip to acceleration. ThinkSystem SE350 edge servers are powerful enough to analyze this flood of data at its source, so it can be transformed into actionable insights that pave the way to winning.
The huge amount of data we gathered from the previous year is key to being ready and competitive on each racetrack, and for the development of the next year’s bike, too,” said Conti. “Every year this process becomes more precise and accurate thanks to the analysis and research we put in place. “
“I am surprised at what we have done in so little time. For sure, this is the future. So, I’m quite confident,” he added. “But usually in our world, if you say you are happy, the rider thinks that you aren’t pushing. So, we are not happy. We want to push more.”