The press conference organized in Valencia on the subject of the new Moto2 with Triumph engine and Magneti Marelli electronics therefore created a surprise by explicitly revealing that the latter would not offer real traction control or real control in 2019. wheelie (see full specifications here).
Obviously, the journalists present then sought to understand why and submitted Corrado Cecchinelli, the MotoGP technology director, to a heavy fire of questions, with the understanding that the Magneti Marelli ECU is fully capable of handling them and that it is therefore a decision more political than technical.
We report all of his responses here.
Conrad Cecchinelli: “Traction control will not be introduced next season. This does not mean that it will be in the future. Of course, this is one of the strategies that we could introduce at some point if necessary. “If it was necessary”, it means 2 things: if it was necessary on track, and if it was necessary to familiarize yourself with it, since it is one more thing to learn before moving up (in the MotoGP category). That's the idea. We did not introduce it at the beginning because we rely on the capacity of the motorcycles and good engine settings to make them usable efficiently, and therefore without adding too many complications at the beginning, since traction control is one of the strategies the most well-known and effective, but unfortunately, it is also one of the most difficult to resolve. So we tried to start without it and we think it makes sense.”
“We don’t want this category to be weakened because of budgets but we would like to have more technicality. Generally, complexity comes at a cost but we have tried to have a very sensible plan, and even if we introduce additional strategies during the year, if so, we will keep that. Because if you're an electronic player in Moto2, you're probably able to use some of the strategies included in the base set from the start, but not all at once.
That's another reason why we tried to restrict (the electronics) to a reasonable package, and in the idea, there is a possibility of introducing other things in the future. I think someone who runs Moto2 today will be able to do it tomorrow, but learning something in the process. So I don’t think he will need additional staff.”
“We don't think traction control is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, this is a very complicated high-level strategy to manage so we thought it should not be introduced at the beginning. Maybe it will be later, we don't know. Of course we have this strategy that works because we have everything in MotoGP, but in the end we made the decision to limit the package provided at the start to something usable by the people involved in Moto2.
Do the available Moto2 strategies take into account each corner or do they apply to the entire track?
“We have adjustments regarding the route, not turn by turn. It's one of many things we can do but it would be one of the very last, if we ever do it. Personally, I wouldn’t like that.”
Until now, the 2D system included GPS which allowed trajectories to be analyzed. Why doesn't the Magneti Marelli system have one?
“We do not encourage GPS for data analysis because we feel it is abused and misleading, so it adds unnecessary complication to the system.”
In view of these responses, we can therefore understand the logic followed by the organizers. Certainly, Moto2 will have equipment very close to that of MotoGP from next season (and even the same regarding the inertial unit), but this will be restricted so as not to manage Traction Control or Wheelie Control. This is to allow Moto2 technicians to familiarize themselves with the available functions (Lauch Control, Engine Brake and Torque Maps made possible by Ride by wire as in MotoGP).
This notion of progressive self-training makes it possible to keep costs at a reasonable level, without having to hire already trained engineers.
Concretely, what do the teams have?
20 Engine Brake (EB) maps and 20 Torque Management (RTM) maps are pre-available in the Magneti Marelli ECU. The rest is blocked.
The technicians then define 3 sets of 6 maps (one per engaged gear) for the engine braking and 3 sets of 6 maps (one per engaged gear) for torque management.
These are the possibilities made available to the pilot via the control module. During the race, the driver can switch from one to the other depending on the wear of the rear tire and the lightness of the tank.
In summary, the 2019 Moto2 electronics are indeed more sophisticated than in Moto3, but more limited and easier to use than in MotoGP because they are pre-adjusted with many parameters blocked. Even if it does not seem the desire of the organizers to release them, the ECU has other functions available in MotoGP (Traction Control, Wheelie Control, turn by turn).
