The duo with the most Superbike World Titles visit Brembo

2/7/2024

 The new Yamaha teammates Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli find out about racing brakes

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Ducati, Yamaha, Kawasaki and BMW: four of the five Factory teams in the Superbike World Championship had changed one of their two riders by the end of 2023.


In the Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team, Nicolò Bulega has moved up a category to race alongside Alvaro Bautista. Toprak Razgatlioglu, on the other hand, has left R1 to go to the ROKIT BMW Motorrad team where Michael Van der Mark has remained. The Turkish rider’s place in the Pata Yamaha Prometeon team, alongside Andrea Locatelli, has been taken by Jonathan Rea, whose place in the Kawasaki Racing Team has gone to Axel Bassani, Alex Lowes’ teammate.



 

If we count the number of World Rider titles that each one has won, the total figure is: 


Pata Yamaha Prometeon Yamaha 7: Rea 6 Superbike; Locatelli 1 Supersport 

Aruba.it Racing - Ducati 4: Bautista 2 Superbike and 1 in 125; Bulega 1 Supersport 

ROKIT BMW Motorrad 1: Razgatlioglu 1 Superbike 

Kawasaki Racing Team none


It was the team that currently holds the most world championship titles that visited the Brembo Racing department in Curno recently. Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea were accompanied on their visit by Paul Denning, Team Principal, and Andrea Dosoli, Yamaha Motor Europe Motorsport R&D Manager.


After the customary greetings from Mario Almondo, the Brembo Performance COO, and the Brembo technicians and engineers, Rea and Locatelli entered the building which is off limits to anyone who does not work in those departments because it guards many of the secrets regarding the performance, reliability and safety that Brembo brake systems guarantee in all two-wheel and four-wheel racing, both on- and off-road.


Catching sight of some Formula 1 brake calipers on a display bench, both riders asked if they could hold them to see how heavy they were: amazed by how light they were, they also looked very closely at their shape and asked the Brembo technicians to explain why certain design decisions had been made.



 

Approximately 80% of the riders in the Superbike World Championship will use a Brembo brake system featuring a monobloc caliper made of aluminum machined from billet with a radial mount and four 34 mm (15/16") diameter pistons. This caliper has special fins on the brake body that help the brakes to cool down but also features a mechanism that increases braking torque and an anti-drag system that reduces residual torque. 


In Superbike racing, all the teams use the same calipers, unlike Formula 1, where the single-seaters have specially built components due to the vehicles’ shape and weight, co-designed to meet the different requirements for ventilation, lightness and rigidity of each team. Rea and Locatelli were able to admire calipers with pillars, some with fins and some with covers. 


Perhaps one day they will double their wheels and move on to cars just like Valentino Rossi, whose entire motorcycling career has featured Brembo brakes.