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Improve your driving style with telemetry data
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What data analysis is and why it is used in karting is now well known, as explained in the “How to interpret the main data collected by telemetry” article published on this TKART channel. It is now time to take this a step further and see how acquired data can help analyse a driver’s style of driving, pointing out, for example, where a driver gains or loses compared to another driver, thereby identifying useful information on where to improve. To do this, data displayed in terms of time/distance is used, as well as the creation of ratios and statistics that help develop a comprehensive judgment on performance.
The most typical and simple way to analyse and compare the performance of two drivers is to show the main channels on a single screen, depending on the distance: thanks to the different colours used for the data of each driver, you can see immediately, at a glance, what happens over a whole lap. Clearly, the most important channel is speed. Along with this, data on steering (deg), throttle opening percentages and the “compare time” are shown, which shows the difference in time between the drivers.
At the first bend, driver 2 loses about 0.15 seconds. Telemetry highlights, basically, two reasons for this. The brakes data shows that driver 2 starts braking earlier compared to driver 1, and above all, takes more time before fully accelerating again. If we look at the metres covered between releasing the accelerator and full acceleration[A] , driver 1 covers 43 metres, while driver 2 instead covers 78 metres. This means that driver 1 covers 35 m. of track while fully accelerating more than driver 2.
The steering chart clarifies the reason for the speed difference: in fact, the data of driver 2 shows a major adjustment [B] of the steering almost in the middle of the bend, while driver 1 has a less “approximate” steering that allows him/her to accelerate much earlier.
Clearly, it is still necessary to understand the reason for this big overrun that, excluding any differences in the setup, may be related to an improper use of the brake, or a braking in a more difficult part of the track.
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