Jerez Track Map with Speed and Gear Telemetry



Please click on the above image to view it larger.

Occasionally some pretty interesting things show up among the usual party line comments in team press releases. Yesterday’s Team Movistar Yamaha press release contained the usual Friday practice information, riders comments, and stock photos. But instead of the usual plain Jane circuit map, the above graphic was included.

As you can see, it includes bike telemetry showing speeds and gears used around the the circuit. So we can see that the factory Yamahas get into 6th gear at only one spot, just before Dry Sack, and never use 1st gear, even through Ducados, the final turn and that with the slowest speed of 70.7 Km/h.

A few other things are interesting to me about this. At trackside I often hear the riders quick-shifting through a gear, usually it appears to be 3rd or 4th, in order to ride the next higher gear through a turn. We can see an example of this at the bottom of the image, the Stadium section where the speeds are 106.0, 144.0, then 117.3 Km/h. Between the 117.3 and the 212.5 speed markers is a quick shift past 3rd in order to stay in 4th through the Crevice and Ferrari turns.

Having looked at this map just before FP4, I watched with interest as Andrea Dovizioso’s telemetry showed on the broadcast. The Ducati did dip into 1st gear in the final turn. Perhaps the Yamahas rely on corner speed while the Ducati’s power determines a different strategy in this section of track.

Image: ©2015 by Yamaha Motor Racing Srl



