Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Join the JMP Summer Challenge: Motorsport edition

[#1]

Want to experience the thrill of motorsport from the comfort of your vacation spot or office this summer? Use JMP visualizations of recent motorsport data to spot trends, outliers, and connections that may evade the viewers in the stands. In celebration of JMP’s partnership with telemetry expert and MotoGP Performance Engineer Mirco Bartolozzi, we invite you to sign up for this veritable data visualization grand prix. 

Your challenge? Use JMP with the data to:

• Create clear, data-driven explorations of the data that uncover meaningful patterns or insights.
• Include well-designed, informative JMP visualizations that clearly communicate findings.
• Deploy innovative approaches to analysis and presentation.
• Create a visualization in JMP that helps tell a story, something that catches your eye and makes people think differently about the race.
• Construct concise explanations that make the analysis accessible and easy to understand for a broad audience.

Sign up for the challenge now.  After you register, you’ll get a link to download JMP data that will let you uncover the complexity of this real-world challenge, which may be similar to challenges you might have at work, in your research, or in your academic studies. After you get the data, just fire up your laptop and go. 

Submit your challenge results by Aug. 24, 2025.

On Sept. 4, winners will be announced to the public and present their findings at a live webinar. The webinar is hosted by Bartolozzi and JMP Systems Engineer Yasmine Hajar, whose doctoral research focused on reducing emissions and enhancing the efficiency of automotive fuel consumption. As a trophy to commemorate their victory, winners receive a LEGO® racing car.

By the way, if you don’t have JMP yet, download a free trial and start your engines!

[dlehman1]

Most of the variables are clear, but I think you should provide a brief data dictionary.  Some of the speed and time variables should be precisely defined, as I am unsure about some of them.

[gail_massari]

Hi Dale @dlehman1 .  I am copying Yasmine Hajar @yasmine_hajar,  who can respond to your data question. 

[shampton82]

@dlehman1 , I put them all into Copilot and asked for what they mean, and it spit out their descriptions for me.  The explanations sounded reasonable!

Steve

[dlehman1]

@shampton82, that was a good idea.  I got most deciphered using an LLM, but I wanted to check a couple.  In particular, I want to know what the l1, l2, FL, and ST represent for the 4 speed columns.  Also, the variable "Position" - does it represent the position for the final race or is it the final result of the race?  If it is the former (e.g., pole position =1), then is there a way to determine what the final race outcome is?  Also, for the time variables, what do Sectors 1, 2, and 3 represent?

Thanks.

[shampton82]

Hey @dlehman1 

This is what I got from copilot:

Speed Metrics

• SpeedI1: Top speed recorded in Sector 1 of the track.
• SpeedI2: Top speed recorded in Sector 2.
• SpeedFL: Top speed during the Fastest Lap of the session.
• SpeedST: Speed recorded at the Speed Trap, usually at the end of a long straight.

For the position, I took that as the position they were in at the end of the lap, so whoever was in position one at lap 66 won.

I believe the track is split into three sections.

[dlehman1]

Well, that's a bit confusing.  If there are 3 sections then why only two sectors (or are sectors different than sections)?  Also, it would be good to have confirmation that position is the position at the end of each lap (that was my belief also).

[dlehman1]

Still no response.  Nothing from a private message to Yasmine either.  A data dictionary should be standard for a competition (frankly, for any data work).

[gail_massari]

Hi @dlehman1 . @yasmine_hajar was out of office. (Summer is here and it is holiday and work travel time both!) 

She just sent me this list (data disctionary), with a thank you to you for asking the question.  She is requesting  that the JMP Motorsport JMP team also add the data dictionary  information to the table that folks will download. 

• Column 1: Row number
• Driver: FIA driver code
• DriverNumber: Driver number (permanent racing number)
• LapNumber: The lap index for the race session
• Stint: Consecutive stretch of laps on the same tire set before doing a pit stop
• SpeedI1: Intermediate Speed recorded at the end of Sector 1
• SpeedI2:  Intermediate Speed recorded at the end of Sector 2
• SpeedFL: Speed recorded at the end of the lap
• SpeedST: Straight-line Speed Trap —top speed measured on the longest straight of the circuit.
• IsPersonalBest: Boolean flag: was this the driver’s personal best lap.
• Compound: Tire specific blend of materials used to construct a tire
• TyreLife: Number of laps completed on the current tire
• FreshTyre: Boolean flag indicating whether the tire is new
• Team: The driver’s team name.
• Track Status: Condition or state of the track - Code 1:  Green (normal track condition) Code 4: Safety Car - Code 8: Virtual Safety Car (VSC) and Safety Car (SC) - Code 12: VSC+ SC - Code 41: Wet track under VSC - Code 124: Multiple conditions
• PitOutTimeSeconds: Time when exiting the pit lane
• PitInTimeSeconds: Time when entering the pit lane
• Sector1TimeSeconds: How long it took to complete Sector 1 of the lap 
• Sector2TimeSeconds: How long it took to complete Sector 2 of the lap 
• Sector3TimeSeconds: How long it took to complete Sector 3 of the lap 
• LapStartTimeSinceStartSeconds: Cumulative timestamp when Lap was started
• LapEndTimeSinceStartSeconds: Cumulative timestamp when Lap was completed
• Sector1TimeSinceStartSeconds: Cumulative timestamp when Sector 1 was completed for each lap
• Sector2TimeSinceStartSeconds: Cumulative timestamp when Sector 2 was completed for each lap
• Sector3TimeSinceStartSeconds: Cumulative timestamp when Sector 3 was completed for each lap

[dlehman1]

@gail_massari 

It would be helpful to indicate if there are any guidelines regarding the submissions (format, length, etc.).  I've been in some competitions where this was announced late and that creates a lot of work for people that have been preparing under a different set of assumed guidelines.  Nothing was indicated, so I have been drafting a document which contains a number of figures, tables and commentary.  But if there are restrictions on length or format, it would be good to announce these sooner rather than later.

Thanks.

[gail_massari]

Hi Dale @dlehman1 ,

@Michael-Schmidt is managing this challenge and there are no additional guidelines posted.  As in all analyses, one should assume quality over quantity, as if you were presenting to an interested audience whose attention you want to grab.  Here is what they posted:

• Insightful analysis: Submissions should demonstrate a clear, data-driven exploration of the data set, uncovering meaningful patterns or insights.
• Effective visualization: Entries must include well-designed, informative visualizations that clearly communicate findings.
• Creativity and originality: Innovative approaches to analysis and presentation are encouraged and will be scored favorably.
• Clarity of communication: The submission should include concise explanations that make the analysis accessible and easy to understand for a broad audience.

Good luck!

[Stats_Like_Jazz]

I joined forces with Mirco (the F1 data guru) and made a video where we walk through all 29 variables available in the dataset, explaining precisely what each one represents.

The video is designed to be your guide to understanding the raw data, helping you to make informed decisions for your own visualizations. 

You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/RSP01R60a5g

I hope you find it helpful!

@gail_massari @dlehman1 @shampton82 @yasmine_hajar 

[dlehman1]

@gail_massari @yasmine_hajar 

One final instruction is needed:  where and how do we submit our work?

[gail_massari]

Hi @dlehman1  It is on the main page for the challenge: https://www.jmp.com/en/offers/summer-challenge/motorsport

Here is the direct link: https://share.hsforms.com/1i0N7oBCpT1GCm4ApC-OgdQcc4jt

Good luck!