The first time is unforgettable, the hundredth is a sign that you are on the right path, but reaching 900 means that the passion has remained the same as at the beginning, as has the desire to challenge oneself, constantly seeking new challenges in an arena like no other.
On the occasion of the 2006 Miami Grand Prix, Brembo achieved an incredible milestone, reaching 900 Grands Prix in Formula 1 and seasoning this achievement with yet another success: a total of 539 GPs have been won by single-seaters equipped with at least one Brembo braking component, for a percentage that approaches 60 percent.
In practice, therefore, since 1975, the year Brembo debuted in Formula 1 with a small supply of cast iron discs for Scuderia Ferrari, to today, out of every 10 Grands Prix held, almost 6 have been won by cars that relied on Brembo for their brakes. An impressive figure for a competition where the best in the world compete.
The driving phenomena
And it is precisely the legends of Formula 1 from the last half-century that have contributed to this haul: in total, 44 drivers have won at least one Grand Prix with Brembo brakes.
The ranking is led by Michael Schumacher, who achieved all 91 of his victories with Brembo brakes: the first 19 with Benetton, from 1992 to 1995, and the subsequent 72 with Ferrari, from 1996 to 2006, winning 2 world titles with the team led by Flavio Briatore and 5 with the Scuderia from Maranello.
Second is Lewis Hamilton with 84 victories, who is still missing his first win with Ferrari to further enrich his legend. Third is Max Verstappen who, at just 28 years old, already boasts 71 victories, with at least one per season since joining Red Bull in 2016.
In fourth position is Sebastian Vettel with 53 victories and in fifth Ayrton Senna with 33.
The Top 10 is completed by multi-world champions like Niki Lauda (13 victories), the first champion with Brembo in 1975, and Fernando Alonso (11), but also by those who have won only one title like Nico Rosberg (23) and those who came close to the World Championship, such as Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa (11 each), and Gerhard Berger (10).
The most successful nations
Formula 1, braked by Brembo, is much more democratic than one might think, as the drivers who have won at least one GP with Brembo come from 17 different countries: most are European, but there are also North and South Americans, Africans, and even Australians. At the moment, only Asian drivers are missing.
The most successful nation is Germany, whose drivers have won 169 of the 539 GPs won overall by Brembo. The United Kingdom has also surpassed the hundred mark, with 107 victories, while thanks to Verstappen, the Netherlands (71) have displaced Brazil (58) from the podium. Austria remains fifth with 23, while Finland and France, both at 20, are very close.
This year, thanks to Kimi Andrea Antonelli, Italy has also made a comeback: the last Italian to win a Grand Prix was Giancarlo Fisichella in 2006, while more recently, the Principality of Monaco has gone from zero to eight victories thanks to Charles Leclerc.
Successful teams
Surprising is also the number of teams that have won at least one Grand Prix with Brembo brakes: there are 15, although almost half (7) did not achieve a second win. The latest to join this list were Racing Point and AlphaTauri in 2020, followed by Alpine in 2021. Who knows if others will soon follow their example.
At the top, standing alone, is Ferrari with 196 GP wins, which means that about four-fifths of its Formula 1 victories have come since it started using Brembo brakes. Second is Red Bull with 130 wins, and third is Mercedes with 125.
Less prominent are the English teams historically linked to AP Racing, a historic British company based in Coventry that develops brakes and clutches for numerous Formula 1 teams (and beyond). AP Racing became part of the Brembo Group in 2000 and is not included in the counts in this article.
For McLaren, fourth with 34 wins, Ayrton Senna's insistence was crucial for the adoption of Brembo brakes, as he had already appreciated them during his time with Lotus.
Technology
These 900 Grand Prix represent a long journey, made possible by the work of hundreds of people who, over the years, have been involved in research and development at Brembo, bringing to life ideas often at odds with the status quo and transforming them into innovative braking solutions to take to the track.
After debuting in 1975 with discs, Brembo ventured into the design and production of brake calipers for Formula 1. And it did so so effectively that, within just six years, from 1982 to 1988, it introduced a series of innovations that revolutionized the braking systems of the category.
By 1980, Brembo engineers had already developed a prototype of a radially mounted aluminum caliper, significantly superior to the axially mounted calipers then in use, both in terms of stiffness and pad wear. This caliper, made by mechanically joining two cast half-calipers, debuted on Ferraris in 1982, the year the Scuderia won the Constructors' title, despite the tragic loss of Gilles Villeneuve.
The success was immediate, but Brembo did not stop. Within two years, it introduced the two-piece caliper machined from solid, which offered an even better weight-to-stiffness ratio. It debuted in 1984 with Ferrari, and was later adopted by Lotus, Benetton, and McLaren.
Shortly thereafter, the development of the aluminum monobloc caliper began, which at the time was considered almost unachievable. Despite technological challenges, the first monobloc caliper came to light in 1987, making its debut in Formula 1 the following year.
The innovation attracted the interest of many teams, and unsurprisingly, during the 1989-1990 biennium, Brembo achieved victory in 87.5% of the Grand Prix races held, a percentage never reached before.
In 1992, at Hockenheim, Senna debuted the new Brembo caliper with four pads, capable of providing greater bite.
In the following years, Brembo experimented with new lightweight alloys, including metal matrix composites, ideal for increasing stiffness and efficiency, particularly on tracks like Monza and Montréal. In 1994, an eight-piston, four-pad caliper was introduced, used until 1998 when FIA regulations banned calipers with more than six pistons.
From the mid-1990s onwards, research on hydraulic components was complemented by studies on carbon friction materials. After countless tests, Brembo embarked on a development path that has made it a leading reference in the sector today.
In 1997, after a series of bench tests, Ferrari brought discs and pads to Fiorano for a trial entrusted to Michael Schumacher, who was so impressed that he wanted to use them already in the Monaco GP. From that moment, the continuous evolution of Brembo discs began, with increasingly high-performance materials and more sophisticated ventilation systems, also developed thanks to computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Over the past twenty years, the most evident evolution has been in ventilation: the number of holes has progressively increased, while their size has decreased. In just four years, from 2002 to 2006, the number of holes went from 30 to 168; in 2012, it reached 768, and by 2021, it exceeded 1,440 before the latest regulatory change.
Towards the end of the 2000s, two further innovations were introduced: the CER material and the spline coupling system, which improved the thermal conductivity, resistance, and durability of the discs.
Today, Brembo has a facility dedicated to the production of carbon components for motorsport — Formula 1, MotoGP, WEC, and Formula E — and has continued to evolve calipers, customizing them for each team.
In 2014, it introduced its own Brake by Wire system, and with the 2026 regulations allowing up to eight pistons per caliper and three mounting points, a new era of design creativity has begun.
Brembo has managed to transfer many of these technologies from the track to the road, aiming to improve the safety of millions of drivers.
Who would have ever imagined, back in 1975, that Brembo brakes would compete in 900 Grand Prix races, winning 539 of them?