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Exclusive: AMA Superbike.com Interview Corrado Cecchinelli
Ducati Corse WSC team Technical Director (τοτε το WSBK γραφοταν ακομα WSC)
Corrado Cecchinelli is the chief engineer on the Ducati Corse World Superbike team. He shuns the limelight and does not grant interviews very often. He spoke to AMASuperbike.com last week in Italy and allowed us unparalleled access to the race shop.
Q. The new fuel injection system that Ducati uses on the 996 Superbike has gotten a lot of attention in the last half season. What can you tell us about it?
A. There's really not that much to tell. The only reason why we did it was for layout reasons. The single injector throttle body is much simpler and it allows us to make shorter manifolds if we need to.
Actually we sometimes compensate the shorter manifolds with longer bell mouths ... but we have one degree of freedom more because we can use shorter manifolds than what we did before. This is more or less the reason we made the switch: simplicity and more freedom in the manifolds.
The single injector can replace the old system because the the three injectors of the old system never never worked together. Only the two bottom injectors work or the top. Two were below and one was above the throttle body and they never worked together. Now we only have the top one, which is exactly the same as before. And it works. (smiles)
Q. How do you get the range from one injector that it once took three to get, previously?
A. If we only consider the amount of fuel you need, it's not a problem. The old top fuel injector only worked at high and low settings, so it is the one with the big capacity. And it is equal to the two bottom injectors.
The problem has not been peak power or fuel delivery, the problem has been power delivery with the new system. Especially at the very small throttle openings and low revs. This is a problem that does not exist in Formula One where power delivery is not a main problem because they have four wheels and it's much less dangerous for them to have power delivery problems.
We really don't know why we have such problems with this system at low revs. It seems like a lot of fuel goes under the butterfly and as soon as you open it, it drops inside the cylinder. This is our explanation, which is not yet proven. It's an opinion.
Q. Would you say that most of your horsepower advances are coming from the top or bottom of then engine? In AMA Superbike many advances come from better bearing material and work on the bottom end of the engine.
A. From the top. From 1999 to 2000 we made big steps in going forward with the compression ratio and shorter with the manifolds. With shorter pistons, with the right compression ratio and room for the valves, the new injection system and shorter manifolds we saw ... advances (smiles again).
We have advantages in the bottom end of the engine, yes. We have advances in top end power with changes to the bottom end which make the power broader and last longer. That was the problem with our engine from 1998, that the power dropped off very quickly. Although we had a small advantage in top power, four or five horsepower, it dropped off quickly. Now we have the advantage everywhere. The only problems are the harshness and too much engine braking when the revs are low.
Q. In 1998 many engines were swapped in the Ducati camp, engines with short fuses. In 1999 that was not the case.
A. True, we did 13 events and 26 races with two riders, so 52 races with no mechanical DNFs.
In 1998 we had some problems. I remember piston breakage at Laguna Seca with Chili and some fuel line problems at Kyalami and Laguna.
We changed a lot less engines this year than in the past. Now we change ... we have two bikes for each rider ... and we change the engine on each bike whenever we can but usually we only put in a new engine on Saturday before the race. We don't need to do it; but to remain strong and to give the riders the best we can give, we put in new engines. The engines will go 1200k or 1300k as a race engine, no problem.
Q. Previously you used a computer program from the Monza race to test new engines and changes to engines. It simulates the entire first race at Monza, correct?
A. Yes, it's called the Monza Test. The engine is put on the dyno and the computer controls it completely. We have found in the past that the first race at Monza is the hardest race for an engine. So the computer simulates the entire race from our data from Monza, every shift, every pull of the throttle, everything. If something is going to break, it will probably break at Monza.
Q. And now you use Daytona, correct?
A. Yes, now that we have data from Daytona, we will probably start using Daytona as our test simulation because the race there is so much time that the engine is flat (wide open). Over half of a lap at Daytona the throttle is wide open or near wide open. It's the biggest durability challenge we have.
Q. How much longer can the Ducati 916/996 motorcycle be competitive?
A. Well, in the last two years we have gained five horsepower per year. I think it's infinite because we have not reached the top yet. Actually it's been fifteen horsepower in three years.
We don't know where the next generation of Ducati motorcycle will come from. There's a big item in the future which is the future of Grand Prix. What if it goes four-stroke? It depends on what we are forced to do, if we go there or if we stay in superbike. If we stay in Superbike then we will stay in the same structure and the same concept. And we will continue to run this engine through evolution, bigger in bore and shorter in stroke and do what everybody does on an engine. The concept will remain the same: V-twin, Desmo valves, one liter in size
Q. Regarding testing inside the shop and outside, which place do you learn more?
A. It depends on what we are talking about. If you have to make engine development, then there is no doubt that the racetrack is almost useless. It is only useful to make a durability test in the real conditions. And I don't think that when you are talking about a gain of two or three horsepower, I don't think there is a rider anywhere in the world who can feel it. So from that side, the racetrack is almost useless. The racetrack is very useful to make long run and durability tests; but we can do a great deal of that here with the dyno and the computer. But, the racetrack cannot be completely be simulated because of the lean angles or weather conditions, obviously. We'll always have to test on the track, I don't see that changing.
If we talk about chassis, it's completely the opposite. You can almost do nothing at home; you can think about changes and what will work, but you have to do everything on the track. This year we did a big step with Ohlins and Michelin because we are trying to make a set up for the tire we like and the suspension that the bike likes. That leads to our tire problems and we will for sure have more tire problems in the future. But this is does not mean that we are not growing in our knowledge of the tire. It's simply that the bike puts out more horsepower now than ever and it is difficult to make a tire last with that power. It's the same problem they are having in 500 GP (Michelin's tire problems).
We actually have more tire problems than the 500s because the 500 is actually less demanding on a tire. Because the horsepower is not that much higher and their weight is so much lighter.
Q. You must have been very worried about the Michelin tire after Brands Hatch this year with the failure that Foggy had.
A. Yes, very much so. We are at the moment worried too. There are some circuits where the (tire) problem is bigger: Brands Hatch, Phillip Island, Monza and Hockenhiem. They are the worst. But, in general, we have to hope that we have more tire problems because this means that we are increasing our horsepower and our performance. We are working together with Michelin to find a solution.
Q. After Brands there was much talk in the WSC paddock that Ducati Corse would change tire companies for 2000 and go with Dunlop. Was that ever close to being the case?
A. Never. It was never a consideration.
Q. About your development: It is said that at HRC that they have high horsepower RC45 engines, 185 horsepower, that they could build, but not use because the components inside the engine would not last the race distance. Do you have engine configurations here that put out more power but will not live under race conditions?
A. No, we are using everything we have right now to stay on top. We make very small steps, sometimes in two or three horsepower steps and when we find them, we immediately test for reliability and if it works, we introduce them as soon as possible on the racetrack.
I think the difference is that we tell the truth.
Q. It must be frustrating to use the grade of fuel you do in WSC knowing what special fuels can do in Superbikes, like in AMA Superbike...
A. Yes. Right now we are pushing on the compression ratio and that is a typical technical problem you will have when you have to use pump fuel. Generally, I agree with the rule as we have it in World Superbike, because if we didn't use it, the competition would be out of any sense if the fuel rule would be free.
There are huge increases available using fuel like you have in AMA. We have fuels that are used in AMA that will give ten horsepower more even if you do nothing more on the engine. That's two or three years of progress on the normal front in engine technology.
Q. This is a period of serious change in World Superbike for the teams and manufacturers, do you agree?
A. This is not the nice and romantic way to put it, but there is no way now that a one man band effort that can do everything. Now you have to go so deep in detail that you cannot do everything. We are going towards a position where people on the team know everything about nothing than nothing about everything. That period, when one man could run a team with his family, is over. If you want to havea top Superbike team. Perhaps Supersport racing leaves a bit more space for that kind of effort but no longer in Superbike.
Q. What kind of budget do you have to deal with?
A. Eleven million. Dollars.
Q. How is it split up?
A. To say it simply ... We really don't know. We're trying right now to build different budgets because before this we just spent whatever it took. This (99) was the first year we know exactly what it cost to do it. (Prior to this season much of the costs of the Superbike team came from different areas of Ducati) Corse is only one year old as a company.
Q. That eleven million dollar budget, does that include riders?
A. That includes everything. Riders, team, travel and ... everything.
Q. How are you handling making parts for the Superbikes? Is it in-house or are you sourcing it from other places?
A. In some cases, we are out-sourcing. I would say almost always because we don't have the capacities. For instance, we don’t have the tools and the instruments to work with carbon fiber. So for sure, it’s crazy for us to do in-house. We can do some parts and some motors, one or two pieces, yeah we can do that. We don’t have the high pressure ovens and so on.
If we talk about castings, I think it is clear why we don’t do castings: It takes a huge plant to make castings. It’s better that we don’t do that in-house and we do something else. In general, there’s another big problem, which is the reason why we are outsourcing even something that we could do in-house which is time. Because we make something in-house that we use for the races, we use exactly the same machines, plants and people that make the road bike parts. So sometimes we have time scheduling problems so we are outsourcing more and more things we could make in-house. For instance, is crankshaft needs a lot of machining. We always did it in-house. We now do fifty percent in-house and we want to go 100% outside. Because it’s too slow and unpredictable with the time scheduling in-house.
Q. Do you use mostly the vendors that are motorcycle specific or do you sometimes use automotive companies? Harley Davidson's Superbike team uses some vendors from Formula One and things like that.
A. I would say eighty percent motorcycling and twenty percent different fields. Mainly we are using sometimes the same suppliers that we use for the road bikes for racing. For instance, we use the same crankcases for production, but we tell the supplier give us the best x-rayed cases for the Superbikes.
For instance, our carbon fiber manufacturer is the same that puts out the parts for the production bikes. This is mainly what we do. We have also some suppliers from different fields, but maybe even more than eighty percent let’s say ninety percent the same suppliers we are using for road bikes.
Q. Cagiva has a relationship with Ferrari. Do you have a relationship with Ferrari?
A. We have no official relations. A lot of us are good friends of a lot of Ferrari people so we exchange information and advice because it’s racing so we face almost the same problems. But if you want to know if we have some project or some official activity together the answer is no. I remember two years ago, I think, David Tardozzi went to Ferrari to see how their trucks and are made and their hospitalities made, for instance there’s this kind of collaboration.
Q. What is your history with Ducati? How long have you been with the company?
A. I’m here since January 1997 and I was hired by Ducati Motor because Ducati Corse was not in existence at the moment. I was hired as someone who takes care of time scheduling of all the racing activities, that was my sole job in the beginning. Very soon I became the customer care man of racing. So I did ’97 mostly working with customers in private races. I had the great satisfaction of having, I think, a big role in the winning of the Supersport championship because we had big problems, electrical failures in ’97. We were losing the championship for reliability problems while our bike was much faster than all the others.
From ‘98, I became more and more involved in the official team and then I became in charge of the racing department before we split from Ducati Motor. Then almost at the same time that we split from Ducati Motor I became also the Technical Director at the track for Ducati Corse. You know we have two main sides in the racing managing of the track which is support and technical. One is David Tardozzi and one is me.
Q. Back to the bikes. A lot of people when they think of memory for the fuel injection system, for lack of a better phrase, they think EPROM chips. In reality, on a factory Superbike that’s pretty much being phased out over a different style memory, right?
A. Yes, it’s true. Motor engine management systems in general got rid of traditional EPROM. We have something we call flash EPROM, which means we have a part of memory for sure in the CPU but we don’t have the physical support of a chip that you can take out and put in the CPU. This is much more convenient because you can simply map the engine by connecting from your laptop to the CPU. You can do changes in real time and in general they are more evolved system. We have it only on the Superbike because in the Supersport bikes we still have let’s say we have a traditional CPU with a chip that you have to take out, reprogram and put in again.
Q. On the Superbike to remap it, it just re-flashes it?
A. Yes, it’s an operation that you make by writing the map on your computer and connect it with the cable to the CPU. It’s simply in one only operation you erase the old mapping and you put the new in. Our Superbike CPU allows us to fit two different mappings. Between them you can switch with a switch on the handlebar.
Q. The old style EPROM that was prone to degredation from sunlight and other things.
A. Yes, that is true. It’s a problem that you can simply solve only with some precautions. That is not really the reason why they are disappearing now. It’s an old technology. It’s bothering to take the plug away from the CPU, put a new in. In our case, it’s also in an inconvenient location so it’s a big time saver.
Q. You've seen Ducati's data acqusition system evolve in your time here.
A. Yeah, I didn’t live the age in which data acquisition was first fitted to the bikes, which was between 1994 and ’95. When I came here I already found the data acquisition on the bikes, but I see the improvement in that you have a lot of advantages by using an easy dialog system, which we are now doing by using everything made by one company. Everything is designed to work together so you can, for instance, record engine parameters and so on which normally you cannot do. For sure, the steps for the future are increasing in frequency of data acquisition and capacity of the data acquisition system. We are now testing a system on our development bikes which has a 24-megabyte capacity compared to the 2-megabytes that we used last year on our bikes. So it’s a huge step. It’s smaller and lighter, for sure.
Q. So it just increases the frequency of when it takes a reading?
A. Yes. When you have more room, you can increase the frequency and have the same time or you can have, for instance, with the normal frequencies and the 2-megabyte space that we had last year. In some races, the last laps put out the first ones because the room was not enough for the memory. So you have to lower the frequency meaning less data or to reduce the time which is what we did.
Q. And when it’s pulled out of the system, do you see great advances in what you’re using to read it with, the program?
A. Yeah, there’s a continuous evolution also in the managing software, for sure. When I first came here in ’97, we had a PI system, which was not integrated with the engine management system so problems of dialog and connections. Then we had the first version of the Marelli system in ’98. Now with ’99 we have a completely new and much better system. It’s like having Windows on your PC. You have all these steps which helps you managing quicker the data, more capacity speed and more possibility of making comparisons, selecting different files all together to compare them. The big step we did this year is also a complete computer networking in the pit so that the two sides of the team can look at the computer data from their own PC. The track engineer works with Carl and he can look at Troy’s data to help Carl, there was no secrets between them.
The step we are making this year, in year 2000, is to make the network together Superbike with the base unit on our truck. Because we have a meeting at our truck at the end of every test session. This year I think we will have a computer connected to the infrared in the pit to ones in the meeting, so in the meeting we can have all the data available.
Q. Where do you see data acqusition going in the future?
A. I have no idea. I have no idea where we are going with the bikes, which is my job, so you can imagine. (laughs)
Τελος βαζω φωτογραφιες τις οποιες τραβηξαν κατα τη διαρκεια της επισκεψης στο εργοστασιο.
Ο παλιος στροφαλος με το σφηνοειδες ακρο του και ο καινουργιος με το οδοντωτο. Η πτωση του Mat Mladin (που κατεληξε με το μηχανακι να παιρνει fuoco) στον αγωνα του Loudon το 1997 συνεβη εξαιτιας καποιου προβληματος με τον παλιο στροφαλο:
Πρεπει να φτιαξουμε 300 996 σημερα...
Μεσα στο χωρο του δυναμομετρου
Καρτερ για το αγωνιστηκο 996
Εξαρτηματα για τις αναρτησεις των αγωνιστηκων στο ΑΜΑ Superbikes
Οι αγκυρες ενος αγωνιστηκου (μιλαμε παντα για το 1999-2000!!!!)
Το συνεργειο που χρησιμοποιει αποκλειστικα η Ducati Corse
Η παλιος και ο νεος αυλος εισαγωγης (ο παλιος ειναι ο αριστερος - εννοειται)
Ενα καινουργιο (τοτε) αμορτισερ με αργες/γρηγορες ρυθμισεις αποσβεσεων, το οποιο χρησιμοποιηθηκε ελαχιστα εκεινο τον καιρο γιατι ακομα δεν μπορουσαν να το ρυθμισουν σωστα για τους αγωνες
Το παλιο (πανω) αμορτισερ (το χρησιμοποιουσε τοτε και ο Biaggi στα GP) και το καινουργιο
Το αγωνιστηκο του Foggarty (προσεξτε στην ουρα του περα απο τα ηλεκτρονικα, το δοχειο για τις αναθυμιασεις των καρτερ - δεν το λες και... μικρο
θυμηθειτε τι εχουμε πει και στο παρελθον γι'αυτο)
Ελπιζω να γουσταρετε!
