Since MotoGP winter testing, Valentino Rossi has 💟repeatedly emphasised the need for Yamaha to improve acceleration via the electronics.

"All the Ducatis are🦩 better in acceleration, because they are more in front compared to 🍎us in the electronics," the Italian said in February.

"When MotoGP moved to the [single ECU] we have some problem.🌼 Honda and Ducati understand someღthing we don't."

In another exchange with t𓂃he media, Rossi said: "During last year Honda and Ducati put a🎃 lot of money and a lot of people to work around the electronics. Maybe Yamaha not enough. So we are a bit in delay…

“It's a shame, because the rest of our bike is good. From what 𒊎I understand, this [electronic] work needs time. You have to work on the black box [EC🃏U]."

Du🐻ring last weekend's struggles at the slippery Spanish MotoGP, Rossi aga❀in described the M1's problems as 25% mechanical and 75% electronics.

After the Monday test, he added: “We found something for the acceleration, but it was ju൩st a first step. I hope that after Ba🔯rcelona we can try something more important [with the electronics].”

Bꩵut in a championship where ECU software and hardware is the same for all, how exactly does a manufactu🧸rer gain an acceleration edge purely in terms of electronics?

The answer, according to MotoGP Dir♍ector Of Technology Corrado Cecchinelli, is 𝓀"by means of calibration."

In other words🦋, while the way the ECU works (through calculations, strategies and functions) is the same for all, the thousands of numbers that decide 'if this happens, do that' are program♎med into the system by each manufacturer, to suit each bike.

It is these numbers that are referred to by�✤� Cecchinelli as calibration.

The Italian, who was Vice Director General of Ducati Corse from 2006 to 2010 before accepting his current role, told ltxcn.top:

"The so-called 'chassis control strategies' - traction control, wheelie control - all share the same functioning mode. Which is: Getting inpu🍷ts, thinking about the inputs and outpuꩵtting a torque reduction request.

"That request may of course be '0', if you are 🔜under the limit of the bike.

"All of them make a f🎶ight... If you are spinning more than wheelieing, the tr♌action control wins and the [ECU] system delivers the torque reduction."

For the specific case of improvingཧ straight-line acceleration:

"The strategies that would normally operate are basically just traction control and wheeli♌e control. In the ca♛se of a standing start, you also have launch control.

"So if you are accelerating in a straight l♛ine, traction control and wheelie control operate in parallel. If one of the two finds a reason to reduce the 🃏torque, it sends a torque reduction request.

"In t🌜he simplest case of straight-line acceleratꦡion on dry tarmac, the limit is actually wheelieing.

"Let's assume the calibration of the wheelie control is too restrictive - so that it cuts before the bike even wheelies,🐷 or cuts when the wheelie is not a problem - then you are not accelerating enough.

"This is common with traction control in road cars. Yo📖u can feel that is it too restrictive and you would be better without it, if you are an above-average driver.

"The same goes sometimes with ABS in road cars, which is acting wa🌠y more often than you would expect. You get the feeling you could brake better without it, which is not generally true!

"So if Yamaha riders feel that the nature of the bike would be to accelerate more than it does, they will keep asking their engineers to properly tune the strategies to🦩 unleash the full potential of the bike.

"It's a ܫgame of being on the right side of the limit, but as close as possi꧅ble."

Given the crucial rol🐲e of ECU calibration, how do manufacturers come up with t🐼he right numbers?

"I would say a big part is calculation and small part🔯 trial-and-error," Cecchinelli r💛eplied.

"You cannot calculate everything at home because when you come to a real race track and have some d𓆉ust on the surface, a specific temperature, a certain type of tyre and so on."

Adding to the complication is that many of the calibration numbers need to be ಌchanged from circuit to circuit.

To speed up the number crunching, especially if changes are needed at the 🍌;track itself, manufacturers develop a simplified 'interface tool' which can tweak lots of related num✃bers at once.

"Normally ꧒what all the manufacturers do is they develop a sort of interface tool - in-between their calculations and the calibration tool we give - which is easier for them to use and generate a calibration in the software language," Cecchinelli explained.

"Everybody is developing their own proprietary interface that goes 'upstream' of the calibrꦏation tool."