Resuming at Silverstone: watch out for Dixon and Lowes in Moto2

8/2/2023

 Back onto the track at last! After 5 weekends with no races, MotoGP resumes in Great Britain, at the Silverstone Circuit to be precise which hosted Formula 1 four weeks ago.

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Back onto the track at last! After 5 weekends with no races, MotoGP resumes in Great Britain, at the Silverstone Circuit to be precise which hosted Formula 1 four weeks ago. According to the Brembo technicians who work closely with all the MotoGP World Championship riders, Silverstone is a moderately demanding circuits for brakes.

On a scale of 1 to 6, it is rated 3 on the difficulty index, very different from the 1 assigned to Formula 1 because the cars, with their four wheels, can take on the big bends on the British track without braking, which helps the brake system to cool down. For motorcycles, on the other hand, braking is more frequent and the stress is greater. Even when it is raining, the MotoGPs use carbon fiber discs which are much more high-performance and consistent from start to finish than the steel ones which were used up until a few years ago.

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The British Moto2 riders like Brembo

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Two out of the eight races held this year in Moto2 were won by British riders: Sam Lowes won the French Grand Prix, and Jake Dixon emerged victorious in the Dutch TT, in the Netherlands. One of the two may make a move into MotoGP, the other into the World Superbike Championship, two categories which in the last 15 years have produced world champion riders who use Brembo brakes.

Brembo also has a strong presence in the other two World Championship categories: this year, it will supply all the Moto2 and Moto3 teams with calipers, 90% of them with brake master cylinders, 80% with pads, and 50% with steel discs. In Moto2 all the riders use 4-piston finned calipers with design and technology derived from MotoGP.

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Four turns which are slow but very different

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At the Silverstone Circuit, MotoGP riders use their brakes 10 times per lap for a total of 36 seconds, whereas Formula 1 single-seaters brake 8 times for a total 14 seconds per lap. The bikes also had to brake 10 times per lap at Assen, but there the brake system was only used for 27 seconds per lap because the track is 1.4 km (0.87 mi) shorter, the top speeds are lower, and braking times are therefore shorter.

In the first half of the British track, 4 turns are impossible to tackle at at least 100 km/h (62 mph), but they are very different from each other: on Turn 6 the braking distance is 253 meters (830 feet), on Turn 3 142 meters (465.8 feet), and on Turns 4 and 7 less than 70 meters (229.6 feet) each. Summing up all of the forces applied by a rider on the Brembo brake lever from the starting line to the checkered flag, the result comes in at more than 900 kg (1,984 lbs).

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200 km/h (124 mph) less in 300 meters (984 feet)

Of the 10 braking sections at the Silverstone Circuit, 2 are classified as very demanding on the brakes, 3 are of medium difficulty, and the remaining 5 are light.

Due to the higher top speed, the Stowe (corner 15) is the most challenging: the MotoGP bikes go from 327 km/h (203 mph) to 127 km/h (78.9 mph) in 5.2 seconds covering 296 meters (971 feet), thanks to a 5.8 kg (13 lb) load on the lever and 1.1 g deceleration.

Brembo HTC 64T brake fluid pressure reaches 11.2 bar.

 

And what about the video games?


Taking on corner 15 correctly on the Silverstone Circuit in the MotoGP video game isn’t like drinking a cup of tea, at least the first few times, but it can get easier.

Once past the bridge, move onto the left side of the track and start to brake as soon as you see a white stripe on the grass which is wider than the previous ones.

Do not lean in too far while you continue downshifting. Make sure you put off opening the throttle more than seems necessary.