Brembo unveils Round 3 of the World Superbike Championship in Aragón

4/2/2019

An in-depth look at the way the bikes derived from standard production models use braking systems at MotorLand Aragón

The third round of the World Superbike Championship is scheduled to take place from 5 to 7 April at MotorLand Aragón.

The track was designed by German architect Hermann Tilke in collaboration with Formula 1 driver Pedro De La Rosa and was inaugurated on September 6, 2009. World Superbike began to hold races here in 2011.

Measuring about 3.15 miles long and between 13 and 16 yards wide, the track is identical to the one used for MotoGP, but the Superbikes are 2.9 seconds slower.

Last year, Marco Melandri won the Superpole with a registered time of 1’49’’543 and in 2015, Marc Marquez got the pole in MotoGP with 1’46’’635.

While the circuit is considered fairly technical, it is pretty hard on the brakes because it doesn't allow the steel discs to cool well, especially in the first stretch where the tight sequence of braking sections can create problems for the brakes.

According to the Brembo technicians, who work closely with 15 World Superbike riders, MotorLand Aragón is a demanding circuit for the brakes.

On a scale of 1 to 5, it earned a 4 on the difficulty index, as did the tracks of Jerez, Magny-Cours and Villicum.

Brake Use During the GP

On 10 of the 17 corners of the track, the Superbikes have to apply the brakes.

The time spent braking is multiplied because of the 689-yard straightaway and various shorter ones that end at tight corners: for the first time this year, the riders have to brake for over half a minute per lap, 33 seconds to be precise.

Over the course of the 18 laps, the brakes are used for almost ten minutes, a figure that is decidedly high for races that last 33.5 minutes.

The significant number of curves positioned close together on the first part of the track results in an average deceleration that is fairly contained: just 1.09G, which can be compared to the 1.27G on the Thai circuit where the previous round was hosted.

Summing up all of the force applied by a rider on the brake lever from the starting line to the checkered flag, the result is more than 750 kg (1,653 pounds).

The Most Challenging Stops

Of the 10 braking sections at MotorLand Aragón, two are considered very demanding on the brakes while six are of medium difficulty and two are light.

The last curve is by far the most difficult because the Superbikes enter it immediately after the 1058-yard straightaway: approaching at 305 km/h (190 mph), the riders brake for 4 seconds and 238 meters (781 feet) to set up the curve and take it at about 151 km/h (94 mph).

While braking, they experience a deceleration of 1.5G, which is 0.28G more than what a Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 registers when braking from around 62 mph.

In the first corner, the Superbikes go from 274 km/h (170 mph) to about 87 km/h (54 mph) in 4.7 seconds and the braking system reaches 11.2 bar in pressure. In the same corner, instead MotoGP arrive faster (289 km/h 180 mph) and yet use carbon brakes for less time (4.5 seconds).

Also heavy is the load on the brake lever registered on curve 15: the riders brake hard for 4.7 seconds even if they need to reduce their speeds by 107 km/h (66 mph), but this requires applying a load of 4.8 kg (10.6 lbs) and drives the pressure of the braking system to 10.2 bar.

Brembo Performance

Bikes with Brembo brakes were victorious at the last 10 races contested at MotorLand Aragón: five of these were won by Ducati and just as many were won by Kawasaki.

In 2018 the bikes with Brembo brakes managed to monopolize the top 11 spots in both races.