Celebrations in Shanghai: 1,000th GP race for Formula 1 and 750th GP race for Brembo

4/9/2019

Brembo celebrates its 750th Formula 1 GP race. Brembo brakes have contested 75% of the Formula 1 GP races held up to now and have won more than half. From Schumacher to Leclerc, here are all the records Brembo has set in F1.

From April 12 to 14, 2019, China will host the 1,000th Formula 1 World Championship GP race, a milestone in the history of motorsports that Brembo helped achieve. Proof is in the results: 24 World Drivers' Championship titles and 28 World Manufacturers' titles won by single-seaters using at least one Brembo braking system component.

Brembo debuted in Formula 1 back in 1975 supplying cast iron discs to Scuderia Ferrari. Since then, all the single-seaters manufactured in Maranello have always used Brembo braking components, including calipers as of 1982. As the years passed, other racing teams have decided to equip their cars with Brembo discs, calipers, brake pads and other braking components.

The Chinese GP in Shanghai will mark the 750th GP race contested by at least one car equipped with Brembo brakes. In other words, at least one Brembo component has been present at 75% of all the Formula 1 World Championship races. Not bad for a company that started out as a small machine shop in 1961. Just 14 years later, Brembo put itself to the test with Formula 1, the hardest and most challenging car brake testing ground.

The current Formula 1 season is the 45th World Championship where at least one car equipped with Brembo brakes is competing. To give you a better idea of how significant this is, only Ferrari and McLaren can boast a higher participation rate, with 70 and 54 seasons respectively. This is the 44th World Championship season for Williams and Lotus got up to 43, but none of the other teams have participated in more than 30 seasons.

By staying involved in Formula 1, Brembo demonstrates its commitment to the highest profile motorsports around and to experimenting with innovation and new technologies that the Company from Bergamo then applies to production cars. The track is the most important and stimulating laboratory for braking systems, which explains why Brembo has never interrupted its participation in Formula 1, unlike other component manufacturers.

The results Brembo has earned are even more impressive. Of 749 GP races contested, cars with Brembo brakes have won a full 406. There have been five seasons where single-seaters with Brembo brakes triumphed at 100% of the GP races and 11 years where they earned 80% of the season wins. The only time there wasn't a single victory was in 1980.

Ferrari is the team that has won the most with Brembo brakes: 183 GP race wins and 14 World Manufacturers' Championships. Keep in mind that throughout the history of Enzo Ferrari's Scuderia, the team has won 235 GP races and 16 World Manufacturers' Championships.

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As you can imagine, Schumacher is the driver who has won the most GP races with Brembo: All of his 91 victories (72 with Ferrari and 19 with Benetton) were achieved in cars equipped with these Italian brakes. Michael was incredibly sensitive to the braking system, which he leveraged to draw out the best performance. He opted for a very short and highly responsive brake pedal that never gave the sensation of letting up. However, the seven-time world champion is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the list of 37 drivers who have won at least one Formula 1 GP race with Brembo brakes. On this list, there are four who have stood on the highest F.1 podium only once: Jean Alesi, Robert Kubica, Alessandro Nannini and Olivier Panis. Brembo is proud to have been present to offer support at these drivers' most glorious moments.

To use Brembo brakes to the fullest requires talent, but age is not a contributing factor. At 18 years, 7 months and 15 days old, Max Verstappen became the youngest driver ever to win in Formula 1 and he did so with Brembo calipers at the 2016 Spanish GP. Kimi Raikkonen was 39 years old when he won the 2018 United States GP race behind the wheel of the Ferrari SF71H equipped with Brembo discs and calipers.

If we take a look at pole positions, we get similar results. At the Bahrain GP, Charles Leclerc was 21 years, 5 months, and 15 days old, which made him the second youngest driver ever to secure a pole position. Only Sebastian Vettel has done better: He took the pole position at the 2008 Italian GP when he was 21 years, 2 months, and 11 days old. Both earned their spots braking with Brembo calipers, discs, and pads. At the other end of the spectrum, Mario Andretti took pole position at the 1982 Italian GP with Ferrari (and Brembo brakes) when he was 42 and a half years old.

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Back to the present day, the Brembo brake discs used in Formula 1 since 2014 have more than 1,000 ventilation holes and the temperature of these discs sometimes reaches 1,000°C (1832°F) on the tightest corners of the World Championship circuits. Both show that life exists even beyond 1,000. And with that, let's celebrate the 1,000th GP race!