We all still have in mind the
disqualification of Fabio Quartararo at Phillip Island.
We saw the effects in the race, with the “double penalty” inflicted on the French driver despite a splendid comeback having propelled him
from last place on the grid to second in just 4 laps.
No point going back to that; the procedure is included in the regulations, therefore perfectly legal.
On the other hand, it is probably useful to explain what happened, and who is responsible for it.
For this, there is no question of turning to the pilot himself, Fabio Quartararo having long adopted an impeccable communication policy; despite numerous blunders made by his team, he never made the slightest accusatory statement, nor even gave the slightest technical explanation. When a wheel is mounted upside down, when an oil cap is loose, when a shock absorber fails or when the gearbox does the same, we smile and declare that things will be better next time...
We will therefore explain to you what could have happened, following our own investigation, all in the simplest way possible.
– All Moto3s are equipped with the same Dellorto ECU. (Electronic Control Unit, the equivalent of your computer, without any programs in it). So far, no problem,
– To manage this ECU, all Moto3s use the same software also manufactured by Dellorto. (The equivalent of Windows for your computer). Still no problem.
– This Software is powered by a configuration file (sometimes called strategy by teams). It is this file which earned Fabio Quartararo his disqualification because it was not approved.
How is that possible ?
A maximum of 4 hours after FP2, each manufacturer provides both the authorities (IRTA) and the teams with a configuration file specific to each circuit. They are therefore obviously different between Honda, Ktm and Mahindra.
But, these files also include possible settings to best adapt them to each driver, and in the end, they are therefore also different between several teams of the same brand, and even several drivers of the same team.
Modifications to the settings of this configuration file are made on a computer using a program sold by Dellorto. This program obviously only allows authorized adjustments (no question of exceeding 13 rpm, for example) such as ignition, injection, Launch Control, Traction Control or sensor calibration.
Each configuration file allows three different maps, which can be changed at will by the rider on the handlebars.
A priori, this process is therefore well supervised and no irregularity should be possible.
And yet ...
The first possible flaw comes from the Dellorto company itself, because if the firm provides the same adjustment software to all teams, usable with a “Team” key, it has also developed another version of this key, apparently intended for manufacturers, where no adjustment is limited. This is to allow them to explore different paths before freezing a tuning configuration file which will be approved.
The problem comes from the fact that today the vast majority of teams also have access to this “Factory” key, for the purposes of private testing or testing.
There, with the latter if we push a setting beyond the limits authorized by the simple "Team" key and we forget to put it back before the race, the authorities' control program detects it immediately, and it is disqualification.
Another possibility, the configuration file used can either be obsolete (if the manufacturer has removed it from its list of approved files, or be a test file (and therefore never approved) or even a file developed by the team submitted to the manufacturer with a request for approval which, in fact, was not transmitted (this already happened a few years ago).
Here are a priori all the possible causes leading to the disqualification of Fabio Quartararo. Afterwards, which of these possibilities was exactly the one that happened at Phillip Island, we will officially never know…
But what is certain is that the driver had nothing to do with it, and yet it was he who was (twice) penalized!
Christian Lundberg, at the microphone of Eurosport: “This is the map behind the strategy for wet conditions. We tried several until Friday evening but it turned out that they were not approved. On Saturday one of these configurations was disabled but it was still there. We didn't use it, but it was there. This was a mistake on our part, we are paying for this and we are sorry. »
Two additional clarifications:
– The authority control software obviously allows you to see whether the map has been used or not. A priori, this is not the case because there would be no point in using a wet map in the dry.
– It is not possible to deactivate a map from the configuration file…
