MotoE and Formula E: balance comes from Brembo brakes

The third season on the FIM MotoE World Cup has just come to an end at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli and was dominated especially in the last two races by a series of dramatic events. Unpredictable right to the very end, the seventh season of the Formula E World Championship came to a close last month. With two races on the same track, the single seaters competed at Tempelhof Airport (Berlin) one day counterclockwise and the day after, clockwise.​

For both championships, the latest season has been marked by great balance. 14 out of 24 drivers could still clinch the title on the eve of the last Formula E race whereas 4 out of 18 riders were still in competition before the last round of MotoE. As for Alessandro Zaccone, the fractures suffered in Race 1 in Misano prevented him from competing in the final event. 

Another element that the two championships have in common is the brake system made in both cases by Brembo. The two-wheelers have been equipped with a Brembo brake system on the 18 Ego Corsa motorcycles made by the Energica Motor Company since the first event, held in 2019, whereas the electric single seaters began to rely on Brembo from the fifth season onwards, the one between 2018 and 2019. ​

​It was the introduction of Spark Racing Technology's Gen2s, the new-generation single-seaters, that led to Brembo brakes being used. Much more powerful and high performing than those that had competed in previous years, the new single seaters can go from a top speed of 225 km/h to 280 km/h and the battery capacity has increased from 28 kWh to 54 kWh. 

The e-races are a very interesting development platform for Brembo which can test and develop specific technical solutions. The idea is to then transfer the new technologies onto cars and motorcycles destined for road use. 

In both categories, the organizers want a brake system that is the same for everyone so as not to affect the sports results and avoid an escalation of costs. Following this logic, it is the driver who is most capable of using the brakes, among other things, who wins. ​

The Energica Ego Corsa bikes have 336 mm diameter, 7.1 mm thick T-Drive steel discs, monobloc front calipers machined from billet with 4 different diameter pistons in titanium, Z04 pads and a radial master cylinder machined from billet with a 19 mm diameter and 18 mm wheelbase. 

Clearly, these components bring MotoE bikes closer to the bikes in the Superbike World Championship whereas the differences with MotoGP are considerable: from the banning of carbon fiber discs to the type of pads used, the lack of calipers with cooling fins on the external body and the anti-drag system to the lack of a thumb master cylinder. ​

For Formula E, on the other hand, the braking material used is carbon fiber which is much more expensive but now vital in top-level motor racing, as demonstrated by the fact it is used in Formula 1 and the World Sports-Prototype Championship. The front discs are 24 mm thick and have a 278 mm diameter and 70 ventilation holes whereas the rear discs are 20 mm thick and have a 263 mm diameter and 90 ventilation holes. 

Compared with Formula One, the discs are decidedly smaller in terms of thickness and are above all less complex with regard to ventilation: a single seater in the premier class can use discs with 1,480 ventilation holes, each with a diameter of 2.5 mm, because since it often goes over 350 km/h, it needs to dissipate much higher temperatures than Formula E cars. ​