Going Testing or Deluding Yourself
When you say you are going testing, do you really mean messing about, or going to find out for certain what is fast?
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Does anyone seriously believe that RedBull rock up to Bahrain for their bit of pre-season testing, unload the cars and then ask each other ‘what do you wanna do then’? ‘Dunno, let’s just see how it goes.’
So how come, especially in karting, that’s exactly what we do.
Well, what I did is put in a soft axle, dropped half a pound out of the left rear, removed two floor tray bolts, and lifted the nassau panel 2.5mm for you know, aero - and voila, 2 tenths just like that.
Here’s how testing normally goes in my experience. I’ll make the argument that it isn’t testing at all, then suggest what you can do in order to get some real results from your very expensive test days!
1. Completely Winging it
I reckon full on ‘winging it’ is the most common form of testing approach. This means showing up, getting everything put together, and just going out on track to see what happens.
You might look at your lap times after each run, then try something out on the kart, depending on nothing other than what you fancy trying at the time.
Nothing will be written down, and if you are anything like me, anything of value will be completely forgotten. Gains or losses in lap times can be attributed to just about anything. You may be unconsciously sharpening some instincts for set ups, or you may not. Who knows!
It just feels like something is being achieved, and its a fun day out at the track.
But testing it ain’t!
2. Testing some things in a random fashion, and putting all gains down to one’s genius.
One level up from winging it is having a vague idea of what you want to test out, and just trying them. It could be a rebuilt engine, a special exhaust you got hold of, or some chassis settings.
You try those things once, and see what happens. If it works you say ‘I knew it!’
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs…
You change something with the set up, and if it works like you believed it would, you take full credit. If however it doesn’t, you can blame some other external factor like the track changing.
Well, what I did is put in a soft axle, dropped half a pound out of the left rear, removed two floor tray bolts, and lifted the nassau panel 2.5mm for you know, aero - 2 tenths just like that.
Was it that, or did the track just get faster mate?!?! 🤷♀️
We are all susceptible to this one! Do I always tell a driver to fully verify whether a technique works for them, with a stringent scientific process? No I accept the praise, pat myself on the back, and bask in the light of my own glory!!
But seriously, confirmation bias is rife in the pitlane. You should really apply it to everything people tell you. Just about every single piece of set up advice you hear, will be completely down to an unverified change to the set up.
So, even if you have changed some parts, one at a time, and found a difference in lap time, this isn’t testing either. It’s just going through the day and making adjustments to settings.
Whether they worked, or whether the track improved or the driver improved hasn’t been verified at all.
Simple steps you can take, to actually do some real testing and reap the rewards.
Turn your curiosities about your set ups into hypotheses.
In straightforward terms, if you have an idea about tyre pressures, ride heights or any rumours about a magic new part, then sit down and think through what you believe might be the gains on offer.
Create some statements like:
I reckon we need to try tyre pressures way outside our normal ranges, I believe some of the quick teams are running 5 psi higher and it could be worth 3 or 4 tenths.
The new ‘ACME ceramic bearing with Teflon super grease and NASA micro-nodules’ is worth a tenth so we need to try it.
This is how you will energise yourself, get enthusiastic about doing some real testing!Have a discussion, days before you go, about how you want to actually test these ideas.
Professional racing teams plan what their running will entail at test days. So you should too.
Sit down and discuss how to break down your day, write it down so that it makes perfect sense. You know how many sessions you will get, so its a super-simple plan.
Now you have reason to feel sure you will actually get something REAL done!Kill the risk of confirmation bias with A-B-A testing.
This is very simple and totally essential. It might mean you need to get fast with the spanners, but for every set up change you make that you think yields a positive result, you have to reverse it and go again.
Yep, that means if you bolt on your new wonder motor, and it goes as fast as you dreamt it would, don’t set off on your victory parade just yet!
All you proved so far is that for some reason you just went quicker. You need to prove it wasn’t the track, driving, a lucky mega tow, the wind changing or whatever.
A-B-A means:
A. Test the old setting.
B. Test the new setting (put on the new engine in our case).
A. Put the old engine back on, as fast as you can, and go again.
This would be the minimum verification step you need to go through to be able to say ‘YES!’ it was the new engine. Anything less than that is messing about.
You will find out either that the motor was indeed faster, or that it wasn’t. You may also be able to say that there was no verifiable difference.
Whatever you learn from the A-B-A approach, you will be certain about it!
Those are some very basic procedures to put in place, in order to make your test days actually worth doing.
Amazingly, if you go to a circuit and put these measures into place, you’ll be the only driver doing so whilst everyone else is simply burning money!
Suddenly, you will become the most professional outfit at the track. You know everyone else, even the people charging serious money, can’t be bothered so the advantage will be immediate and stark!
Here’s your summary:
Don’t just show up at a test day with nothing to find out, other than seeing how fast you are today. That’s not testing anything at all, and is no more than a track day.
Don’t allow confirmation bias to kid you into thinking you are a set ups guru, just because the track improved every session.
DO use your curiosity to drive ideas on what you want to test.
DO have pre-testing meetings, to decide exactly how your test day will work session by session.
DO verify your results with a strict A-B-A process. And if you really want to be super sure, go A-B-A-B to really nail it down.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time all the best
Terence