MotoGP | What is “videometry”, a new technique loved by pilots

In a sport where the differences are so minimal that every thousandth of a second counts, any help is useful for a driver who wants to improve his lap time. A technique has been introduced into MotoGP for several years and has recently been perfected to the point of becoming, for many, a key factor. This has meant that in 2024, for the first time since its introduction, all teams on the premier class grid will have a “videometry” technician or coach.

Obviously, we wonder what videometry is. “It consists of recording the drivers' lines at certain already established points on the track, especially in corners. With a software program, the images are superimposed to see the different lines that each rider adopts and, if possible, the trajectories of those who go fastest are imitated”, explains an old MotoGP technical chief.

“Once you have the images, it is very easy to analyze them and it is very effective, especially when comparing riders with the same bike,” adds this technician, who did not have this system when he was in MotoGP. “They started using it the year after I left.”

There have been many times during a grand prix when we have heard a driver say that he loses in a corner or in a concrete sector of the track. “But tomorrow we will resolve it”. This correction comes in two ways: the traditional one is to continue following the driver on the track who goes fastest at every point to understand what he does better than you. the other option is to implement this video system to study the different lines.

Curiously, the last team to incorporate a “coach” to work on this technique was Ducati, the first brand that started using it before discarding it and now recovering it.

Pioneer a Belgian engineer

The first technical chief to apply video to improve trajectories was the beautiful Serge Andrey, who began applying it when he worked at Ducati in 2011 and developed it for three seasons, before the Italian team closed the program in 2013 with The arrival of Andrea Dovizioso. Andrey, who is an engineer, began to develop his own software, since there was no tool on the market at that time that superimposed images of moving trajectories. The Belgian's experience did not go unnoticed and LCR-Honda signed him in 2014 in a bid to improve on Stefan Bradl's results, but he ended up having his worst season before moving to Aprilia in 2015. In the same year, Cal Cruthclow joined Lucio Cecchinello's team and the “videometry” department began to grow, so much so that it attracted the attention of Marc Márquez, at the time the leading rider of the official Repsol Honda team. The Spaniard started visiting the truck where Andrey worked and Honda started paying him to assist their champion.

At the same time, the Suzuki team began using the same technique with another engineer, the Japanese Motohiko Tono, who, taking advantage of the fact that video recording software was modernizing, adapted the system to work, apparently successfully, given that the Repsol Honda team quickly acquired his services to create their own “videometry” department. It didn't work out as expected, because Márquez preferred to continue using the services of engineer Andrey from LCR, leaving Tono, known to everyone in the paddock as “five”, to work with Honda's second rider, this year Joan Mir, and the two previous Pol Espargaró. Márquez's trust in Andrey was such that he proposed that he join the Gresini team or, alternatively, purchase the software he has developed over the years. The Belgian preferred to keep his “secret” in the LCR team, where he has been treated like at home for the last ten years.

Tono's place at Suzuki was taken by another technician, this time Italian, Francesco Munzone, performance engineer of the Hamamatsu company. “Basically, the theme is to record drivers on a certain section of the track,” explains Munzone. “Then you superimpose everything to see the different maneuvers and allow the pilot to verify for himself some of the things that he does, that he doesn't do and that could help him do them”, he adds. “Originally everything was more rudimentary, but today there are software programs, free or licensed,” he explains.

The “coaches” enter the scene

This means teams no longer need an engineer to do this work. Then the figure of the image recorder and editor was introduced, in addition to that of the “videometry” technician. Yamaha, with the arrival of Esteban Garcia (2019) in the garage of Maverick Viñales (who knew the technique from his Suzuki days), began to employ a video expert, Daniel Bollini, to record the images and edit the videos, with the team managers or, at the time, Wilco Zeelenberg, in charge of analyzing them together with the drivers. The teams soon understood that the figure of the coach had to be supported by images, not just by what these experts saw on the track.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Idalio Gavira, coach of VR46 Racing and before Valentino Rossi at Yamaha

The VR46 Racing Team, which has what is considered the best coach in the paddock, the Spaniard Idalio Gavira, has entrusted Roberto Locatelli with the role of videometrist, analyzing the videos both with Gavira, who is the “boss”, and with Locatelli. This year the Italian left VR46 to join the Fantic team in Moto2, while former rider Andrea Migno took his place in the MotoGP team, recording videos and assisting Idalio.

Gresini has also been working on this technique for some time, in this case with another former Italian rider, the two-time 125cc and 250cc world champion Manuel Poggiali. Poggiali's work has not gone unnoticed at Ducati and, from this year, he will become part of the technical staff of the official team for “videometry”, alternating, at least for this year, his work with both Gresini and Ducati.

The Bolognese team, which was the first to have this department in 2011 and then closed it in 2013, is bringing it back ten years later, demonstrating that it has become a factor that riders find increasingly useful. The Pramac team also understood this, and despite having a small budget to move its staff, this year they brought in Max Sabbatani to take care of the “videometry”. “It was an area that we were missing and with Max we will take a step forward in this aspect,” Gino Borsoi told Motorsport.com.

Photo by: LCR-Honda

LCR-Honda team, with Serge Andrey third to the back

A step that KTM decided to take a few years ago, when the son of the then team manager Mike Leitner was responsible for recording and editing the images to allow the technicians to analyze them. However, with the Austrian's departure at the end of 2021, the Mattighofen manufacturer has decided to entrust the video and image editing service to an external company, just like Aprilia and their respective satellite teams, GasGas and, from this season, the new Trackhouse Racing.

Even in SBK “videometry” is gaining ground. Ducati and Yamaha have the system and their respective coaches, Chaz Davies and Nicolò Canepa, while Honda will implement it starting from this season.