Donington Telemetry Analysis

A little analysis based on the DL1 telemetry from Donington.

Allcomers qualify session in Orange overlaid onto Robs fastest lap from last year.
Here is some analysis of my first outing in the BDN at Donington and comparing it to Robs run from last year. The second from bottom trace is the speed and the bottom trace is the time slip. You can see a gradually increasing time slip showing the gain received from slightly higher apex speeds and then a drop in the advantage due to being too cautious through the old hairpin. Any gain is complete changed around from Coppice onwards, leading onto and down the back straight. We had a considerable headwind on that back straight as as can be see in the values window, the peak speed on that lap from Rob was 134mph and mine was just 126mph.

Allcomers qualify back straight speed comparison
Here is a comparison of a run down the back straight in the Allcomers qualify, when I was pushing the hardest, up against the telemetry from Robs run last year. You can see that the wind at this stage had dropped a little and meant I was only 3 mph slower but I was able to brake a little later and carry some more speed through the corner. Once again I actually brake a little more gently than Rob does but bleed off the brakes earlier and use more of the run to the apex as a slowing down section. By the time we reach the end of the track allocated to this sector the wind has had an effect again and I am slightly down on the speed on the run down to Redgate on the following lap. This is similar to the analysis I did last year when comparing my laps to those of Paul.

RGB Qualify compared to Allcomers Qualify
Now if we do a complete lap comparison between my fastest lap from the allcomers qualify (first time out in the BDN at Donington) and the only real time that weekend when I was able to push which was the RGB qualify session. The lap time differences here are 1:16.14in black against 1:15.16 overlaid in orange.
starting from the left of the track and focusing on the RGB qualify (faster) lap in orange you can see a better run through turn 1 (redgate) although a blip in the acceleration down to the right hander at the start of the craner curves, a very slightly better entry to the old hairpin but a slower exit to give a very similar first 3rd of the circuit. From here on and highlighted by the vertical marker in the speed/time slip graph is the run up the hill to McLeans where I carry a lot more speed in and just sacrifice a touch on the exit. Redgate and onto the back straight is very similar and then on this lap the wind has much less effect down the back straight, giving me a considerable time advantage along with the extra 5mph (not that 131mph is actually that fast to be honest). I then brake later, carry more speed upto and through the right hander of the chicane without effecting the left hand part.

Allcomers race compared to RGB qualify
The comparison here is just to show how easy I was on the front brakes during the allcomers race when we had to swap to using the smaller disc as a replacement for the cracked brake found after qualify. Here you can see the RGB qualify pole lap in black and my fastest lap of the allcomers in orange. Instead of nice sharp ends to the acceleration zones where I hit the brakes, trying not to linger in a mid way state, you can see nice rounded off lines where I lift the throttle and coast to let the drag bleed off speed rather than requiring the brakes to take the load.

Head wind effect comparison on back straight
One final comparison to show the effect the wind was having, on and off, through the race day. The Black and Orange lines on this back straight section are representative of Robs runs last year, and the purple overlaid line is my fastest sector from our visit there this week. It actually happened in the RGB qualify and was not on my pole lap but with a sector time of 18:07, it was only just 18:10 from my pole lap. Robs top speed between 134 and 135, mine just 129!