On the throttle

OptimumG’s data master expands our knowledge of data analysis techniques

- CLAUDE ROUELLE

If you’ve been following this year’s series of articles from OptimumG, you know we have shared some of the data analysis techniques used by our engineers in their day-to-day racing activities. So far, we have presented steering and braking performance metrics, and this article will focus on the throttle channel.

Of the three driver inputs, the throttle has two main functions: accelerating the car and, in some cases, using longitudinal tyre grip to balance it.

The tricky part is applying the correct amount of throttle. A driver can easily apply too much, too little, too fast or too slow. As a driver moves to higher racing series, which typically means more engine power, the more difficult it is to find the perfect throttle modulation.

Before we start looking at ways to analyse the throttle channel, using key performance metrics, it is important to first understand what a throttle trace looks like. Figure 1 shows a throttle trace for a long corner.

A throttle chart will have throttle percentage on the y-axis, the value going from zero to 100 per cent. Zero means the throttle is closed, at 100 per cent the throttle is fully open. The x-axis can either be in distance or time.

In Figure 1, the driver is applying full throttle up until the 3750m marker, but then releases the throttle and is braking to enter the corner. The driver picks up the throttle at 3825m on corner exit.

Similar to the V29N4 edition where we broke down the different stages of braking, we will be applying the same methodology in this article for the throttle by looking at the different stages during corner exit: ‘Start Corner Exit’, ‘Middle Corner Exit’ and ‘End Corner Exit’.