Racing Without a Team: The Privateer's Data Playbook

For all those drivers racing as a privateer, therefore not driving with a team but solo, I have good news for you, because right now you are able to get so many insights from your sessions even if you cannot access data from your teammates.

So obviously the track is always the best teacher, I would say, because you can learn so much by following other drivers, even though they may not be your teammates. By following them, but also by looking at other drivers from the outside when you are following different sessions, you can always pick up the best lines and learn a lot from the other drivers, especially when going to a new track. But for those privateers that again have no access to someone else's data, there's now really good news, because you can get lots of cool information that's going to help you find lap time.

The memory bank a privateer never used to have

And what I'm talking about is everything we've really built at PURPL. We've created all those features so that the privateers, wherever located in the world, can access their data and find hidden gems, as I call the golden nuggets, from their data that previously were being lost. Because, you know, let's talk about it: data analysis, it's a bit like learning a language, and, uh, you can't learn a language in, in 10 days by watching tutorials. It takes a while, it takes experience. Therefore, the best way now, now with AI running most of our lives, obviously you can get the really high quality insights from data analysis. So first of all, the cool thing is that with AI built into PURPL, you can get memory, literally tons of memory and accurate memory from all your sessions.

Let me explain. If you drive in a track before AI, let's say before a platform like PURPL, you would not analyze your data most of the times, because it would be too hard for most people. But even if you did analyze your data, you wouldn't really have a bank of notes and insights from all your sessions. You would just be left with your data files where you would have to reanalyze them again and again. So now you can get insights from all your data for all your sessions. And those insights are stored in a memory backlog, log, so it literally creates a memory bank from your driving in general as a racing driver, analyzing your driving style, analyzing your strong areas, analyzing your weak areas, so you can track over time your progress and remind you of the areas you should be working on based on your previous sessions.

And that's really good as a general, like, racing driver improvement. But also, from track to track, it gets super specific on the things you have to improve on a given track. Let's say I drive, I drive a lot in Italy's famous track of Lonato, or I drive a lot in Franciacorta, and, uh, you know, those kind of tracks, I have a full bank of data from my sessions. And when I open up PURPL on my phone or on my tablet, I'm basically getting feedback that's already been analyzed in the previous sessions, and he already kind of knows my weak areas around those tracks, and he already knows where he wants me to work on. So I get custom feedback, not just for the track, but also for my driving style.

The two numbers to track, and the one prerequisite

So that we can find lap time. Of course, if you have a teammate's data, of course that would be very helpful, especially if the teammate is fast and gets a lot of experience in that track. But the reality is that we, most of the times, can't. And I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. We can't go and steal data to people randomly, or just back them for their data sessions. You can only do, do that when you have some money in your tent. But I mean, at the end of the day, if you push your limits, if you test different lines, if you test different driving, if you test different setups, you can end up with a bunch of data, even if just from yourself, that is going to be very useful, and almost going to fully compensate having a large amount of teammates.

Teammates can be a great advantage. But nowadays, I feel like the gap between a privateer and a driver inside a large team, it's shrinking. And I really feel that, yes, having access to lots of insights from your own driving, starting from, you know, the, the gap to your theoretical time. You know, if you all the time have about four or five tenths from your theoretical time, but not the one you get on the MyChron, because on the MyChron you can only get, uh, three splits, and that's it. But the reality is that you can segment the track in more than three splits, just like in an F1 analysis. You can get seven, six mini splits, and that's basically what you can get on PURPL. You can have multiple splits, and that's gonna show you much more precisely, obviously accurately, those places are not gonna be set in middle of chicane, where it would be unnatural and unrealistic. It's for you to compete for a theoretical time that wouldn't be real.

So I feel like we made a really good algorithm that detects the sections in the right places when you're steering is straight, basically, and you don't have to worry about, uh, you know, the next corner. So that's my priority, like, a split needs to be set when you're not engaged in a corner, or, like, preparing for another corner. So it has to be that you're, like, with the steering straight, and with a bit of breathing room till the next corner, so at least you can literally separate the corner. So I think that's working really well. So you will have a theoretical time which is real. And if you again see four or five tenths to your theoretical, I mean, that's what you should be going to work for improving, before going and thinking about improving one tenth by looking at someone else's data, or by changing your setup. So that's my prerequisite. I just want to make sure the gap to the theoretical time is just one tenth or even less, ideally, so that means you've done a really, really good session, because it's easy to get within one tenth to a MyChron three splits, but it was really hard to get within one, one tenth of, let's say, seven splits. Therefore, if you get within one tenth, it's really good job.

And then, if you can get your standard deviation, so your consistency, really low, so basically if you get really low value of standard deviation, it means you have, for example, very little variance on your laps, which is great in terms of statistics. It would have really high consistency. But obviously it's, uh, inversely correlated, so the lower the value, the better your consistency, in a way. Okay, that's one way. And you should always check your reference from other sessions, so you can see the trend. Okay, as my standard deviation improved in this track? As my gap to the theoretical improved in this lap? Or has it gotten worse? As my standard deviation increased? As my gap to my theoretical increased? Now, you want those two values to be as low as possible. That's my number two checklist metrics that I want to track in my driving and on my drivers too. So that's the thing.

When you plateau: trading data with a rival

Then I feel like, once you're good and you have experience with different setups, experience with different lines on that track, and you feel like it's starting to hit a plateau, and you're struggling to improve anymore on that track, you can then proceed to maybe ask someone on the track to share their data.

Of course, it's really hard. I mean, if you find someone really competitive as me, I will never share my data with you. I mean, honestly, this sport is cutthroat. It's very ruthless, and I am very ruthless myself. So I'm not going to share my data with you. But you may eventually find somebody who's willing to share the data. Maybe they're one tenth slower than, than you, but, uh, you can ask to trade data, because, you know, maybe even if that guy is one tenth slower than you, you can pick some corners which is quicker than you.

Of course, remember that whatever kart and setup he's running on may facilitate him and make it easier for him to make some corners compared to you, that may have a different setup and therefore may have easier time in other corners. So obviously you won't be able to fully, maybe, replicate his corners in terms of driving, because maybe his setup is just designed for those corners. For example, if he has a very short wheelbase, very pointy and an oversteery setup, he will not be able to match you in the fast corners which needs mostly rear stability, but he should be really, really fast in the slow corners and changes of direction. So, you know, you probably won't be able to match him there. So you always have to consider different setups in different karts.

But if you have someone around you that probably has the same kart brand and similar setup, because you can kind of tell what setup someone is running on. You can see their, you know, caster from the outside. You can see kind of what axle and hubs, rims someone is running on, even ride heights. So you can have an idea, okay, if this guy is going pretty similar to me, then it would be a pretty fair apple to apple comparison. So that would be a better, let's say, benchmark in the data, versus someone who has a completely different kart brand than you. And, you know, it would be unreasonable to really benchmark data against.

Corners or straights? The fastest read on someone else's data

But you can always have an idea whether the driver is fast in the corners, whether the driver is fast on the straights. Maybe you are driving phenomenally well in the corners, but you may be still on a test engine, so you're losing three, four, five tenths on the straights. So you may be at least having a reassurance that when the race engine comes, you should be a lot quicker.

But maybe it's the opposite. Maybe your engine is already a race engine, but you're not going so fast to the corners. So maybe you need, a, maybe to change tires, or, b, maybe to improve your driving, because, uh, because, or maybe it's both.

The track is the teacher, that's how I learned

You know, as I said previously, the track is probably the most important teacher, and also your teammate, because if you go on the track and you have someone who's two tenths quicker than you in the previous session, you can try and follow him up and try to see where you're losing. And you may pick up lines, you may pick up techniques that you wouldn't have imagined.

Maybe he's turning a bit later, or a bit earlier than what you thought, because maybe there's more grip there, because maybe he's done more driving in that specific track or in those specific conditions. And you may have found some, uh, hidden secrets that you may have not discovered yet. So again, remember, the track is always the best teacher, you can always learn a lot.

Then, that's by the way how I learned, you know. I didn't really have a coach. I mean, my mechanic would give me some, uh, advices here and there, just like, "brake later, brake later". That, that would be his, like, number one advice every time. So I felt like, um, he always, like, pushed me, even though I was aware I was braking already really late. But I think that helped me, in a way, to being pushed to brake later and later. I think that turned me into a braking monster, in a way.

But yeah, I would learn mostly by just driving around other drivers and just picking up myself the tricks, picking up myself the styles, based on different conditions, based on different tracks. That would help me a lot. I wouldn't say you necessarily need teammates, because, honestly, when I was driving in Mini and Juniors, I wasn't really having any strong teammates. I'll be honest, like, yeah, I mean, I only had kind of teammates in, uh, in KZ, when I did few races and my brother Leo was driving with me in shifters. And, uh, so whenever I had this data, that would be great, because I could always compare where I was gaining time as well as where I was losing time. So that was a very cool thing. But as I said, for the most of my career, I didn't really have any teammate compared with, and I didn't even really use data until, like, yeah, 15 years old or so, so almost like by the time I was getting to formula car.

So, you know, I'm not saying you should be doing that too. I mean, now the world has changed, and you need to use data. I mean, it's, it's definitely going to be your performance enhancer, and you should leverage as much as possible. But I'm just saying to you that, I mean, you can still win races without having strong teammates to compare data against. I mean, remember, your, your the track is your teacher, and you gotta make sure that you leverage the track as much as possible.

Record it, then re-watch yourself

Record video onwards, so you can then re-watch what other drivers are doing. It's not, you're not just relying on memory, you're relying on your memory plus the videos that you have recorded and the data you've recorded, so you can see, you know.

And also, again, re-watch your, re-watch your data. I mean, we have some cool features inside of PURPL that allows you to see your data traces in a really cool way, that is very visual, not boring at all, I hope, so that's what we try to do, to make it as visual and less text-heavy as possible, so that it got more engaging from your side, and almost felt like a game than an analysis. So you can re-watch your laps, re-watch your lines. And again, if you look at your theoretical, you'll be able to see when you were able to get your absolute best corner two, for example, or corner four, and you should go and have a look what you did in that corner.

You can literally go and zoom in on that corner and see, oh, what did I do good in that lap? Because I want to redo that, you know? That's the thing. You know, it's, that, that's simple. You just want to see what you did on that lap. Maybe you turn in a bit later, got later apex, I was able to straighten up the car earlier and exit, and got a way better exit, and maybe even a better entry. So, you know, you can learn so much from the other, sure, but you can learn so much from yourself, because believe me, especially when you're going through a new track, you'll be trying so many things, maybe without even noticing when you drive, and at the end of the session you can re-watch, re-study everything that you did. That's going to be really cool.

If you don't know where to start

And finally, remember, if you're a privateer, you're driving by yourself, you don't know where to start, follow the nine post-session questions checklist. There's a full guide where you can access all the questions you can ask yourself.

But to be honest, these questions, you can find them literally inside of PURPL. It's going to tell you exactly where you need to find lap time, where to go and find lap time. And you have all the metrics to answer your questions. So you won't have to do any manual work, really. You just have to go out there and see it for yourself.

So I hope that was useful. Sign up to PURPL for free. I hope it's going to be a great experience. Let me know how it feels, and remember to keep sending it. Ciao.