There are names connected to Brembo not only on the business end, but also because of an affectionate bond. Ferrari is one of these: With the Ferrari team Brembo made its Formula 1 début in 1975 and from that time on they have supplied them without interruption. But Ferrari is also the surname of the rider who won the first 500 race on a bike fitted with Brembo brakes.
His name is Virginio and on 20 August 1978, astride a Suzuki managed by the Gallina team, he snatched the victory from Johnny Cecotto by 70 hundredths of a second on the terrible 22,835 km Nürburgring. Ferrari also won the following year at Assen, this time astride a private Suzuki fitted with Brembo brakes. In 1980, on the other hand, it was Marco Lucchinelli who gave Brembo a win, also astride a team Gallina Suzuki. But the turning point for Brembo came in 1983: for that season Yamaha relied on Brembo braking systems and was rewarded with 6 wins, all taken by Kenny Roberts.
After a poor two-year period in the late eighties and early nineties, Brembo continued investing in new solutions. And so in 1990 Honda was also convinced by the superiority of the Italian brakes, launching a relationship which is still in place today. The following year Brembo managed, for the first time, to achieve the goal of 10 season wins. Keeping up the pace, a year later the GP wins on bikes fitted with Brembo brakes rose to 12.
1996 was a phenomenal year for Brembo, winning all 15 season GP races, more than half of which with Mick Doohan: the Australian took all 54 of his Championship wins using the Italian brakes. In 1996, among other things, Brembo reached the milestone of 100 wins in 500. Since then, until the 2015 Valencia GP, all of the Grand Prix wins in the top class have been taken by bikes fitted with Brembo brakes.
Win number 200 came in 2002, the last year before the category change. Launching MotoGP with a win could have been no one more fitting than Valentino Rossi: his Honda relied on Brembo brakes, as did the Yamahas and Ducatis that he would ride later on. For this reason, Brembo had a hand in all of the 86 GP races won by the rider from Tavullia in 500/MotoGP, just as it has in Jorge Lorenzo's 40 wins. Brembo currently stands at 427 wins.
