At Le Castellet, keep an eye out for the braking in the chicane

6/15/2021

Brembo discs with various ventilations for the French F1 GP and also for road cars.

A month after the Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 1 returns to the Mediterranean, with the French Grand Prix at Le Castellet, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. According to Brembo technicians, the Circuit Paul Ricard is one of those tracks that make little demand on the brakes.

On a scale of one to five, it has a difficulty rating of two, the joint lowest of the season with Silverstone and Suzuka. It is a very technical track, with medium downforce and high-speed corners like Signes (turn 10), which the drivers take at full pelt and other very slow corners like turn 15.

Up to 1,480 ventilation holes for Formula 1 discs 

Each driver can choose from six different Brembo front disc solutions depending on the temperatures expected during the Grand Prix and the specific race strategy. There is the medium cooling option with 800 holes, high cooling with 1,250 holes and very high cooling with 1,480 holes. Each of these then offers a sub-option with a process on the outer diameter - the so-called groove.

In the case of very high cooling, the holes are arranged in seven different rows, in the intermediate case in six rows and the other case in four rows. They measure 2.5 millimeters (0.098 inches) in diameter each and are precision-machined individually. It takes 12-14 hours to punch all the holes on a single disc. The mechanical component tolerance is only four hundredths.

No to thermal shocks even for road cars

Although they don't reach the 1,200°C (2,192°F) of Formula 1 cars, road car braking systems can also overheat. To avoid this, Brembo has researched the shape of the ventilation chamber for over a quarter of a century. Thanks to this, peg ventilation has replaced the traditional fins.

The pegs, arranged on three circumferences along the braking band, with different geometry to ensure optimum fluid dynamic performance, increase the resistance to thermal cracks by up to 30 percent, extending the life of the disc.

Find tailor-made brakes for your car at www.bremboparts.com

Only one over a hundredweight

On average, Formula 1 drivers use their brakes for more than 15.7 seconds over a whole lap, similar to the Bahrain GP where the track is 400 meters (437 yards) shorter. At Circuit Paul Ricard, the braking systems are applied for 17 percent of the entire race, at Sakhir for 18 percent.

All three braking times over two seconds are concentrated in the central part of the track, although they differ in deceleration and load on the brake pedal. There is only one point where the load exceeds 100kg (221 lbs.), which is unusual because at least two or more braking points on all the other World Championship tracks meet this requirement.

In the chicane at 140 km/h (87 mph). 

The 15 turns of Circuit Paul Ricard have eight braking sections. Only one is classified as demanding on the brakes, two are medium-difficulty, and the other five are light.

The most demanding braking is at turn 8, the chicane that bisects the 1.8 km (1.2 mile) Mistral straight. The cars arrive at 349 km/h (217 mph) and brake for 2.09 seconds, during which they cover 126 meters (138 yards) to go into the turn at 140 km/h (87 mph). Drivers must exert a load of 143 kg (315 lbs.) and are subject to a deceleration of 5.3 g (0.19 oz).