Alex Baumgaertel is the Managing Director, and one of the founders, of Kalex. We caught up with him to ask how our chassis software has helped them in their pursuit of yet more world titles in Moto2™, and also to bring you the inside scoop on how the transition to the Triumph engines has been.
Zero One Racing: “How have Zero One Racing, and our chassis software, helped Kalex Engineering in the Moto2™ World Championship?”
Alex Baumgaertel: “Well first of all, the Zero One Chassis Program is very well structured, it has all you need to individualise views, highlight results and adjust the graphics window. You can add individual points and mathematical results. Additionally you have different bike positions either predefined or individual. This gives you a lot of freedom in your analysis and helps to understand what happens on track. We as Kalex need to analyse the individual AND also compare “mass data” , means compare several riders to find kind of a trend and by that try to find a way for the future development. With the “Setup Overview” you have a very quick function for this. Also the individualised export is a great functionality for this. For development, the dynamic bike function and link design is nice helper.”
Zero One Racing: “Which part of the chassis software has helped most with the bike setup?”
Alex Baumgaertel: “There are 2 points. The functionality and visual of the program helps each user, the crew chief and us as the manufacturer, to go on details and be quick. Time is a big thing when it’s about racing, also in the garage when you have limited time to decide what change you have to do for the next exit. I think there the “bike position” is a very helpful tool. Secondly it’s the great support by Aaron from Zero One to perform our individual request and being available any time. That makes a difference.”
Zero One Racing: “From 2019, the Moto2™ engines switched from Honda to the larger capacity, Triumph engine. Did this provide you with different challenges with the chassis design and also bike setup?”
Alex Baumgaertel: “Yes, that was pretty different to what we had known from the Honda engine times. Especially having more engine mounting points on the Triumph engine was a task to understand chassis stiffness. The different engine character asked also for different setup in combination with new introduced electronics software from Magneti Marelli, which especially lets you manage engine brake much more than in the past. Additionally a different rear tire generation (wider and bigger diameter) was introduced at Jerez GP. This had massive setup changes with it and riders needed to adapt a lot. This was a bigger change than just the engine.”
Zero One Racing: “All the Kalex bikes in Moto2™ are now running Öhlins suspension. The teams, Öhlins and Kalex are all running chassis software by Zero One Racing, has this been a benefit to have everyone on the same system?”
Alex Baumgaertel: “Absolutely. It is like speaking all the same language. Everybody got the same layout, talking about same numbers. This is helping to be efficient, quick and precise. The key parameters for performance and that’s what you need in the paddock on a race weekend.”
Zero One Racing: “Kalex is a small company, but you have been dominating the Moto2 class in recent years with 8 riders titles and 7 constructors titles. What is the secret to Kalex’s success?”
Alex Baumgaertel: “Yes we started as a 2 guy company in 2009, preparing us for the Moto2™ start in 2010. Now we are in total 9 persons in Kalex, still smaller than any of our customer teams. There is actually no secret. My target from the beginning was to get the status of becoming a “team member” and not being a supplier. This is what also my colleagues achieved when we became more guys at Kalex. Then you have to listen, the most important thing. Listen to the riders, the technicians, the mechanics and the team managers, getting information is very important. Then you have to filter all this information and we got the correct guys for that, so my crew is another key point. And finally, you have to work, and if necessary a lot.”