The environment is the key to success in the World Championship, especially when the gaps are so close. A talented driver can make up for a lot of shortcomings, but the relationship with his chief engineer is essential. It is indeed one of the most important positions in a MotoGP team, just behind the rider. He supervises the entire technical team of a team and is also the first person with whom the driver will debrief upon returning to his pit.
This is an aspect often overlooked in favor of technical development, building trust between a driver and their chief engineer is crucial to success. And making this union work requires many of the same attributes that make a good marriage: good communication, understanding, honesty, empathy, forgiveness, managing emotions, etc.
The role of the chief mechanic is to be entirely responsible for a rider and his entire technical team, so he takes care of all technical aspects related to a defined rider's motorcycle. So suspension tuning, geometry, tires, electronics. But also the tire strategy and the way the tire allocation is managed over the weekend.
Another important part of the chief engineer's job is giving technical feedback to the factory, as he is the one who makes the link between what the driver says and the engineers based at the factory.
Above all, optimization of time
The challenge is understanding how to communicate with others and the subtleties of language and emotions. It takes time to find the right rhythm and synchronize with the needs of both camps. The rider's job is to tell his engineer how he feels about the bike, and the chief mechanic's job is to improve the bike in a limited time.
Open communication is crucial to the success of a team and a driver. It is imperative to develop trust and create a connection. It's no coincidence that the most successful drivers generally work with their chief mechanic for a long time.
Two-way communication
It is crucial for a driver to be able to give his opinion, but his team must also be able to gather data. From electronics to suspensions to tires, all kinds of data are collected and analyzed alongside rider feedback. A structure can only succeed if rider feedback and data go in the same direction to perfect the bike. All members of the team must feel valued and this is the main role of a chief engineer: to exploit the abilities of each person to develop the best possible solution.
The chief engineer has a settings sheet that describes the driver's comments, the tire technician's data on track conditions and the mechanic's data on fuel consumption and a host of other variables. During a debrief, the focus will be on the chief mechanic and the data engineer, but it is a team effort to prepare for the race. It's easy to focus on the data and let the numbers guide the engineer, but at the end of each test session, when the driver returns to the garage, the team records his reactions and compares them to the expected results. The closer the feedback is to reality, the more quickly trust is established.
Finding solutions: Does the perfect plan achieve the perfect result?
Being able to track the positives and negatives is even more crucial in a season where nothing is decided. One area where teams are trying to find an advantage is understanding tires and how to best use a given allocation. From week to week, Michelin brings various options to choose from, so it is important to understand the conditions.
For this, the team relies on the tire technician to have the track temperature, ambient temperature and tire pressure. The initial temperature of the tire when leaving the pits will always be constant, because the tire will have been heated to a given temperature and kept in blankets until the last moment. As soon as a driver enters the boxes, the temperature is measured and the result is noted on the tire technician's session plan. The team can assess wear rate and performance with timesheets to show degradation after a certain number of laps. With a lot of analysis, the debriefs at the end of each session and each day allow engineers to propose possible solutions for the next day.
Bringing all the information together is the biggest job of a chief engineer. He is not necessarily responsible for finding a solution, but he should collect as much information as possible and allow the team to use it. Most chief engineers come from a specific field, but when they become managers, their goal is to lead a group of specialists and keep everyone moving in the same direction. Perfect preparation does not always lead to perfect performance, but it gives the best chance of a good result on race day. The bike is never perfect for the rider's taste, the goal is to approach perfection.
What changes are made to the machines from one circuit to another?
Between 2 different layouts, the technical teams have to make quite significant changes because there are two big differences from one circuit to another, the layout of the track and the asphalt. One of the biggest changes is the gear ratios, due to the length of the straights and the speed of going through curves. We change internal gearbox ratios, primary gears and final transmission ratios. You have to find the combination that best suits the circuit layout.
And then, depending on the asphalt (therefore level of grip) and the route, you have to adapt the suspension. Obviously, the way a driver brakes in Assen is different from the way a driver brakes in Austria for many reasons. This is why all suspension settings, as well as geometry, are changed.
Usually all that is done during the race weekend is fine tuning. The most difficult thing is to adapt to the level of grip, because it is something that evolves throughout the weekend.
