The prototypes return to Le Mans with 12 different Brembo brake discs

5/10/2022

Guide to the Brembo brake discs for MotoGP and road use and info on how they are used in the French GP

One month after the 24 Ore Le Mans which was won by the Yoshimura SERT Motul team together with a Brembo brake system, the Bugatti Circuit will host the MotoGP World Championship: the lap times are 5 seconds faster than the Endurance World Championship times but the race covers a distance of just over 110 km (68.3 miles).

According to Brembo technicians who work closely with all the MotoGP World Championship riders, this track is one of the most highly demanding circuits for brakes.

On a scale of 1 to 6, it is rated 4 on the difficulty index, the highest rating in this first part of the championship together with Jerez. To avoid the risk that the brake discs do not reach the ideal temperature, many riders may use brake discs with a low braking band, still in carbon, which are preferred if it rains.

A dozen Brembo discs for MotoGP 

Brembo provides the teams with a wide range of brake discs: each MotoGP rider can choose from six disc geometries and each one comes with two different carbon compounds and two different geometries called High Mass and Standard Mass which, along with the different diameters available (the riders can choose from three different diameters: 320 mm, 340 mm and 355 mm) give a total of twelve different solutions.

Different material but the same care and attention for street bikes 

Street bikes and bikes used on track days clearly do not have carbon fiber discs. However, this does not mean that the experience in MotoGP has not had a positive effect on factory production. A good demonstration of this is the T-Drive disc with its steel braking band and billet aluminum housing.

The T-Drive system gets its name from the eight T-shaped pins on the disc which, along with the same number of outlines on the housing, eliminate the need for fastener studs. This results in both axial and radial floating, increasing resistance to the thermal-mechanical stress and the braking torque transmitted.

Discover the different varieties of sport discs for the most popular bikes.

900 kg (1,984 lbs) from start to finish

On every lap of the Le Mans circuit, the riders use their brakes 9 times for a total of 31.5 seconds - no small thing, given that this is the third shortest track in the World Championship. On the Termas de Rio Hondo track which is 600 meters (656 yards) longer, the brakes are used for over 1 second less.

The MotoGP riders do not have to tackle more than two consecutive corners without using the brakes at the Bugatti Circuit and this prevents cooling. Although there is a lack of deceleration from 200 km/h, the brake system is used for over 4 seconds in 5 different braking episodes. The overall load exerted by each rider on the brake lever from start to finish is also high: 900 kg (1,984 lbs)

1.5 G of hard braking at 300 km/h (186.4 mph) 

Of the 9 braking sections at the Le Mans circuit, 2 are classified as demanding on the brakes, 3 are of medium difficulty and the remaining 4 are relatively light.

The hardest braking section for the MotoGP bikes is on turn nine: the bikes go from 301 km/h to 105 km/h (183 to 67 mph) by braking for 4.5 seconds, while the brake fluid pressure reaches 12.2 bar. The riders exert a load of 5.7 kg (12.6 lbs) on the brake lever, are subjected to 1.5 g deceleration, and in the meantime cover a distance of 231 meters (253 yds).

And in the video games? 

To handle Turn 9 on the Bugatti Circuit in the MotoGP video game, you have to gradually move to the right when on the straight and apply the brakes just before you put the bike into 6th gear, halfway between the first billboard on the right and the second one where there is a concrete strip on the side of the track instead of grass. Move to the left while downshifting all the way through the gears but without overrunning the trajectory since the next corner is to the right.