From a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

SUZUKI AND GERICOM FORM NEW PARTNERSHIP

Team Suzuki has forged a new partnership with Gericom, Austrian notebook computer manufacturers and suppliers, to upgrade still further the state of the art of electronic data processing for the factory GP team.

Gericom, the biggest suppliers in Austria and Germany, will be supplying the team with notebook computers, for the vital pit-garage task of downloading and processing data from the many information channels on each motorcycle.

“This is an area of ever-increasing importance and complexity. We’re currently using about 20 computers, and even the ones only six months old are in danger of going out of date,” said team manager Garry Taylor.

“We were looking for the best possible performance, and the new alliance with Gericom is exactly what we wanted,” he continued. “It means we will be able to speak directly to the manufacturer on any computing issues.”

Earlier this year, Gericom made their first contact with the motorcycle World Championships, becoming official supplier of notebooks to MotoGP.

Data-gathering is a vital part of running a grand prix motorcycle, and the arrival last year of the new-generation four-strokes has put even more focus on this area. Team Software Engineer and Technical Coordinator Alfred Willeke explained that the much more complex engine management programmes, adding electronic fuel injection to ignition functions, had doubled the amount of information collected by the on-board 2D data-acquisition systems.

“We are using twice as much infromation channels on the four-stroke compared with the two-stroke. We are downloading in the pits after each run,” said Willeke.

“There is much more information, so that we need more people to analyse and interpret the data. As a result, all our computers are networked, so that for example chassis and engine specialists can work on the data at the same time.”