Ron Dennis

acotrel said:

I found this video about Ron Dennis inspiring. It is about racing car development. It is probably to late to do much more with cars, but a development road-race class for twin cylinder four-stroke motorcycles might be good fun.

Click to expand...

So Al - where's your "Hannah" box on your bike?
...and, seriously, what do you think he means by "graphing"? Not necessarily correct spelling as he only speaks the word.

The Youtube videos about Moto Rapido give an idea of the data which is collected from British Superbikes. It contains lots of variables. If you only look at one variable and change one at a time, you tend to miss the interactions between the variables. A better way to go would probably be by the use of pattern recognition software. I think Moto Rapido use Motec engine management systems which even monitor what the suspension is doing.

When you 'graph' by computer, you use regression analysis to develop the equation for the line of best fit. But normal regression analysis only caters for the interaction between two variables, You have three dimensional graphs - X and Y and a time axis. It is easy to visualise. With 3 variables, the graph becomes a landscape with a time variable. The data collected of F1 cars and superbikes probably contains about a dozen variables. When you have that situation, you need to recognise the pattern. A computer can do that much better than a human.
I think Ron Dennis only knows about data handling, what his experts have told him. In his position, he only needs to maintain an overview.

There is a way in which games' theory uses the visualisation of 3 dimensional graphs. You wind your way along the low energy path along the bottom of the valleys.

When you have two variables, the graph has two dimensions - X and Y. - X is cause and Y is effect. When you have several variables, cause and effect are two data sets - what you measure and their combined effect. So you end up doing pattern recognition instead of trying to determine the effect of every individual variable.
It happens with high strength steel which has about 16 possible chemical elements which affect about 6 physical properties.