I'd go with gearing or weight too.. equal machinery means nothing when someone has a better gearing setup.. we always hear about 'better drive out of the corner' due to a better line or more grip in the corner exit.. dont know how much that would contribute.. but at least a little.. and if you had one more tooth on the sprocket, plus better grip.. plus a lil less weight.. you'd blow by the guy on the exact bike without those things one would assume, on a long enough straight anyway
Suspension plays a big part with grip, as does tyre pressure, The team that has the best database of tyre compound/temp/pressure will have an advantage.
When I was racing (so long ago
) one big advantage I had over other teams was my background - I am a numbers geek. I kept detailed stats on everything from air pressure, humidity, ambient temperature, track temperature, track condition, tyre temp, tyre condition, tyre make, model, compound, bike, rider, rider weight, etc, etc. After 10 or so years of running at the same 8 tracks I had amassed a huge database of figures, that allowed us to extrapolate a setting before we even hit the practice sessions.
All teams in international competition do this - this is one reason the likes of Aspar has a seeming advantage over the relative newcomers like BQR (Blusens) - 25+ years of data at all those Spanish, French, Italian, German, tracks. BQR aren't novices, far from it, but they had been running bikes in Spanish Formula Extreme (1000cc) so they won't have the same kind of data as Aspar.
It is such a 'mappable' science that when a new tyre formulation is developed, it should only take a few different sessions to be able to correlate with previous tyres to be able to extrapolate potential settings. That's why race teams have data guys. It's not all about engine mapping.
