Think your way faster
EX-WSB star Chaz Davies is quietly inventing a new role in elite racing: the rider super-coach. And it’s going really rather well…
Marginal gains are big news in elite sport. From cycling to rugby, coaches have cottoned on that when all your rivals have done the obvious stuff, the easiest way to win is to make the most incremental improvements. And in motorcycle racing that applies to the rider’s brain as much as their engine and suspension.
This is where the rider coach comes in, and ex-world Superbike star Chaz Davies is blazing a trail with Ducati’s factory WSB and World Supersport riders. He’s setting a template for the job that’s being closely studied by several race teams – including Ducati’s Motogp outfit.
Of course, there have been rider coaches before – the likes of Andy Ibbott, Randy Mamola and Luca Cadalora all assisted GP riders – but Chaz is doing a lot more than reporting on what rivals are doing at particular corners. ‘I’m providing marginal gains in several areas,’ he tells Bike. ‘So not everything I say leads to a massive leap forward, but it often helps. If you’re racing and you’re searching for thousandths of a second, this can be very important.’ Here’s how Chaz helps some of the world’s best riders go even faster…
Identifying the root of the problem
Last year was Ducati’s first back in World Supersport and factory rider Nicolo Bulega wasn’t performing as the team hoped. ‘I’d seen little things going wrong in races,’ says Chaz. ‘Nicola has a Bagnaia-type style – very clean and clinical – and on his last drop of the brake [ie, the moment he lets off the front brake] the rear was trying to walk around on him, so he’d feel like he needed to slow down more. He was losing a couple of tenths at the end of every braking area, and the older the tyre got, the worse it became. It meant he couldn’t get on the throttle early, couldn’t pass people, and couldn’t set up opportunities to overtake.’ With the problem identified, the team could find a solution. ‘We played with engine braking electronics and found a setting that allowed him to ride the bike like he wanted and he’s been at the front ever since [as Bike goes to press, he’s leading the championship].’
Remove mental strain
‘I know from experience how mentally draining race weekends can be,’ says Chaz, who won 32 WSB races, took 99 podiums and won the World Supersport championship in 2011. ‘If I can reduce the mental energy they have to spend on technical aspects of the job, it leaves more energy for riding. I need to remove stress.’ Chaz does this by acting as a middleman between the riders and engineers. ‘The riders tell me what they need from the bike, and I sit with the engineers.’ So the Ducati riders rest while their rivals spend hours frazzling their brains in technical debriefs.
Showing not telling
In the old days a rider coach would have to describe to riders how their lines might be improved. Not any more. ‘During FP1 I’ll go out around the track and have a look at lines, gear patterns and corner interpretation [avoiding bumps etc],’ says Chaz. ‘Then, once I’ve got an overview, I’ll go out with my video camera and film the riders at points where they might have a problem.’ Chaz then edits the video and runs it through software that shows ghost image overlays, either with themselves or rivals. ‘Then I’ll share it with the riders and engineers. That’s far quicker than trying to explain a problem – after a 20sec video they’ll usually say “ah” and they get it. Then you can put a plan in place. People have used this in Motogp but the issue was you can have the greatest videographer in the world, but unless you can interpret what you’re seeing, it’s irrelevant. You need to give the full picture – if a rider is getting 0.2s out of you in a braking area, he might be losing it on the exit, you have to balance what you show the riders.’
Proving what riders feel
If a problem can’t be seen on the data, riders sometimes struggle to convince engineers it exists. ‘Last year, as strong as our engine was,’ says Chaz, ‘we missed a bit of very low rpm torque and rider connection. I could really highlight this with footage comparing how we jump off a slow corner compared with how Jonny [Rea] or Toprak [Razgatlıoğlu] do.’ This year, the problem has been fixed.
Preventing crashes
Last year at Donington, Coppice corner – the fast, blind right-hander – was a mess, with surface changes and bumps. ‘Alvaro [Bautista] was on the theoretically ideal line. On Friday I suggested he tightened it up to get away from the bumps – his front was protesting every lap. But I didn’t push it. And in the first race he crashed on the bumps. I was annoyed with myself for not pushing harder. After the crash I did a deep dive into the corner and sent him some video showing the line Toprak and Jonny were taking. I suggested that a tighter line would be a bit slower going in, but the risk factor would be reduced massively. He held that line perfectly for the rest of the weekend and came second in race two.’
‘Ducati riders rest while their rivals spend hours frazzling their brains in technical debriefs’