Ducati and Lenovo continue partnership
Ducati Lenovo Team is preparing for a new MotoGP season, in which technology will play an increasingly crucial role. Since 2018, Ducati has used Lenovo’s data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart collaboration to drive improvements and help the team accelerate simulations and real-time data analysis, constantly transferring technology between the racing world and Ducati’s street bikes.
The first goal for the 2022 season is to complete the Remote Garage project, which will allow engineers to receive data in real time and to interact with the garage and bikes while working remotely. Ducati and Lenovo are committed to improving video conferencing in the headquarters and in the garage, aiming to better connect the virtual teams for successful collaboration.
Ducati CEO, Claudio Domenicali, said to be competitive and achieve the best results, on and off the track, it is essential to have a clear idea of the central role of digital innovation and to rely on the support of the best partners. “Thanks to the collaboration with Lenovo, we have accomplished important goals, such as accelerating data collection and analysis, thus speeding up the decision-making process. This is how we brought to circuits worldwide the bike that won the MotoGP Constructors’ World Title last season for the second year in a row. Thanks to a passion for technological innovation that we share with Lenovo, we will continue moving forward in this direction, exploring tech solutions that will achieve even better results on the track, in serial production, and in corporate infrastructures,” said Domenicali.
President of Intelligent Devices Group at Lenovo, Luca Rossi, said the two companies had strengthened their technology partnership, paving the way for bolder innovation in the hybrid working world. We are proud to collaborate with Ducati, who share our core values of speed, dedication, team spirit and a focus on results. In line with our mission to enable intelligent transformation, we will continue to invest and innovate with Ducati to achieve increasingly ambitious goals in the fast-evolving industry of motorsports,” said Rossi.
Using High Performance Computing technology, based on Lenovo ThinkSystem SD530, SR630 and SR650 servers, Ducati simplified and accelerated data analysis concerning aerodynamics, fluid dynamics and stress tests. The improved computing power has allowed the company to obtain data and information in a third of the computation time and run almost twice as many simulations at the same time. This makes it easier for engineers to understand how bikes will react to various weather conditions and continuously improve on-track performance. Additionally, Lenovo infrastructure grants high standards of data protection and allowed Ducati to minimise the risk of downtime.
Ducati adopted the SR650 server to boost connectivity and advanced real-time analytics. Lenovo’s server boasts a high computing power in an extremely small, versatile and easily portable device. Designed and built with the unique requirements of the edge in mind, ThinkSystem SE350 can operate effectively in any location, even in extreme environments. ThinkSystem SE350 allows engineers to manage in real time, wherever they are, about 15GB of data for each bike, and to produce customised insights for each rider that can be leveraged to take fast, well-informed decisions. Additionally, the security tools integrated in the device allow automatic data encryption in case of tampering, helping to protect Ducati’s intellectual property and prevent data leaks.
Ducati has also deployed a new virtual desktop infrastructure, built in partnership with Lenovo. More than 250 2D and 3D virtual desktops are used across the organisation from the research and development to the garage. Ducati benefits from increased productivity as users can connect to their workstation whenever they want, wherever they are and from any device. Virtual desktops also help to simplify IT management and maintenance, to improve data protection and business continuity, as well as to optimise resources and allow professionals to focus on higher value-added tasks. Furthermore, thanks to the possibility of working on the move, Ducati designers can remotely collaborate in real time with the development team and the test rider during test phases, making changes to the design of the bike or of a single component based on the feedback received, reducing production times.
Additionally, Ducati and Lenovo are looking at how they can harness AI, machine learning and augmented reality to drive even greater levels of innovation in MotoGP. Reproducing the bike and its components virtually, in full size in a real context, will represent a differentiating factor accelerating future research and development, testing and maintenance, as well as of after-sales support for street bikes.
