There was a time not so long ago when the numbers of drivers leaving the limits of the track were noted carefully by the marshals, then transmitted to the Race Direction after the event (test session or race). It took an infinite amount of time on the old fast circuits now riddled with chicanes, like Monza or Imola.
The situation has now changed with the appearance of cameras intended to monitor violations. These are now all the more useful as many of the exteriors of curves are made of smooth bitumen, so only a strip of paint delimits the authorized width of the track. Mike Webb, MotoGP Race Director, explained to crash.net how this system worked, from noticing the fault to reporting it on the rider's motorcycle dashboard.
“There is a new indicator light on the dashboard of each motorcycle to signal when the track limits are exceeded. This does not mean a penalty, it means that we saw that the driver was exceeding the limits. We will consider this an error, but be careful as you may receive a penalty.
“We previously signaled this warning manually during the last half of last year, informing the team to notify their rider via their warning sign. Now we also have it as a signal on the dashboard. There is some text to say what the message means.
“Another new signal on the dashboard is for blue flags, especially during a race for a driver who is about to be caught and overtaken. I'm not so concerned about qualifying and practice, but during the race I want to be sure that the leaders won't be blocked by a slower driver, so I give that extra signal. As with all scoreboard signals, we will also continue to wave flags at the side of the track.
“The blue flag signal is not automated, we continue to monitor from race management. At the same time as we communicate with the commissioner positions to tell them “be ready to present the blue flag”, we decide when and for which drivers to send the signal to the dashboard.
“The boundaries of the track have been a growing problem because we have removed a lot of artificial grass for safety. We therefore have an automated system, based on cameras, to be able to identify when a wheel is out of track limits and to display the information immediately.
“We always check and decide whether it deserves a penalty or not, but the cameras basically speed up our decision-making process. Rather than having dozens of eyes looking at cameras everywhere (editor’s note: Webb probably meant “screens”), we have a signal sent to us automatically, saying, “hey, look at this ". We tested this system last year, but its use is new this year.
“It will be ready for use from Qatar. The good thing is that we will have dedicated cameras at the contentious locations, rather than relying on a Dorna camera that happens to be in the right place to look at that location. The big step forward for me is that we will have our own cameras, just for this task.
“The average time between when a driver exceeds track limits and when a decision is made varies greatly. In testing it's very easy, because all we do is cancel this trick, saying it's an illegal trick, it's very automated and relatively simple. Our guy who has been observing more or less presses a button, and then the timers cancel the round.
“During a race, there is a lot more judgment on our part, in general, either: “ Okay, he made a mistake and went off the track, but didn't gain any advantage." ou “he made this mistake too often…”. Or, “he has clearly gained an advantage”
“If it's a clear situation – during a live broadcast, a driver exceeds the track limits and gains ground – the penalty is instantaneous and the driver knows it within a minute. Then we have much slower penalties regarding track limits, when we get a report from the stewards on a driver who was maybe not in the leader group, so not always in front of a camera.
“It must therefore be verified by finding the video of this incident and, if necessary, by issuing the penalty. This can take a number of turns in the worst possible case. There is therefore a variance in detection. In the new automated camera system, we used software that determines the track boundary, when an object has moved out of that boundary, then the system transmits that image to us so we can evaluate it immediately.
“We still have to judge whether it was an infraction or not, but at least it stops us from waiting for a commissioner to call us on the radio, “can you look at turn 12, there’s a lap?” ". It's just about speeding up the process using the latest technology. »
Photo © Magneti Marelli
Source: crash.net
