Analytics Takeover
Every major industry, including the sports industry either has or will move towards advanced performance analytics. It has become a necessity for many to thrive and in some cases, survive. Just as importantly, analytics can unlock substantial hidden value for those that can harness the power.
Aside from being a motorcycle racing enthusiasts and coach, I built my carrier in the trading business and have witnessed the range of success and failure that companies face. This cuts across many complex ecosystems spanning from Wall Street to global commodities trading. Some of the lessons I’ve learned are quite simple in retrospect, with many not so obvious to the casual onlooker.
The transformative events may be different by timeframe and the sophistication of analytics that caused major shifts, but they all have a common story….Those who succeeded had the foresight and took the risk to change as new technologies became available. Those who failed invariably resisted change, waited too long before they got with the program, or lacked the skills necessary to play. In some cases those who failed were relegated to 2nd and 3rd tier players and in other cases they went under.
MotoGP and Analytics
So what does all this have to do with MotoGP?
Much like the global commodities markets, MotoGP’s riders live in a complex physical environment that is continually changing. It is an environment that can be captured through performance metrics that are mathematically driven. Like trading, it’s all about finding “the edge” before others. Also like trading, the edge may only last a short time before everyone adapts to it and then you need to find a new edge. If you don’t find it, you go out of business.
Much like the systems that support the superheroes of the hour on Wall Street and in the commodities markets, Grand Prix Scout identifies “the edge” for any given rider versus the field through complex algorithms and proprietary data. The team does this in a completely impartial system that measures the reasons for success and the reasons for failure.
Sure, MotoGP teams evaluate their own machinery setup data to find an edge in isolation. But this is held tightly and not shared just like in trading stocks or commodities. The Grand Prix Scout team does something very different and to give you a hint, the magic is encompassed in our name.
Think of us as a talent scout that helps fans, sponsors, teams and riders better understand who is on the winning track versus those that are at risk of failure in this complex environment. This is not just who came in what place in a race or season, but why riders are improving or not across 8 different metrics for every circuit and every sector of every lap over time.
Grand Prix Scout – “We Push”
We started with focusing only on MotoGP in 2018 and 2019. This helped us in successfully developing, testing and improving our algorithms. In 2020 our coverage will be including performance benchmarks and performance analysis of all Moto2 and Moto3 riders. We will be tracking all riders throughout their careers and helping you understand who’s on the move and who’s not towards championships and world titles.
Remember, racing isn’t just a rider and a fast bike but a mosaic of variable circumstances. We are here to identify those variables and shed light on how they ultimately influence race day.