The Valencian Community 2020 MotoGP Grand Prix according to Brembo

11/10/2020

A guide to Brembo braking systems in the premier class, and their use the second time around on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo

After Jerez, Misano Adriatico and Aragón, the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is now hosting two consecutive GPs seven days apart. Although it's not the last race of the season this year, it might still be the clincher in terms of who's going to win the title.

According to the Brembo technicians who work closely with all the MotoGP World Championship riders, the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is a moderately demanding circuit for the brakes. On a difficulty index scale of 1 to 5, it earned a 3 - the lowest of the four Spanish tracks.

The Brembo radial master cylinder

The Brembo radial master cylinder is widely used in MotoGP. Both the strength of the fingers on the brake lever and the strength of the lever itself move in the same direction, i.e. radially with regard to the point where the cylinder is fastened to the handlebar, without generating friction or locking. This ensures that no energy is wasted.

For road motorcycles, on the other hand, Brembo has come up with the R19RCS Corsa Corta radial master cylinder: with this cylinder, the bite point can be adjusted to 3 different levels and two different wheelbases can be selected. By integrating the two systems, 6 different combinations are obtained so that every motorcyclist can choose their favorite solution.

Brake use during the Valencian Community MotoGP Grand Prix

Summing up all the force that a rider applies on his brake lever from the starting line to the checkered flag, the result comes in at more than 950 kg. The value is higher only at Misano Adriatico, Le Mans and Jerez, but on the Italian circuit there are 12 braking sections per lap, compared with 11 in Andalusia.

Another distinguishing feature of the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is that there's only one point where the braking force generates a speed loss of over 150 km/h (93 mph). Despite there being 6 bends approached at between 73 km/h and 99 km/h (45 & 62 mph), none of them see the bikes arrive at a speed of at least 240 km/h (149 mph) before the brakes are called into action

The longest braking section of the Valencian Community GP

Of the 9 braking sections on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, only one is classed as demanding for the brakes, 5 are of average difficulty and the remaining 3 are not particularly challenging.

For the bikes, the longest throttle-off moment - in terms of time - is on bend 8: the prototypes go from 232 km/h to 89 km/h (144 to 55 mph) in 4.4 seconds (0.2 more compared with the first bend), while covering a distance of 180 meters (197 yds). The riders exert a load of just 3.9 kg on the brake lever, and deceleration is 1.3 G.