The month of May concludes with the 7th round of MotoGP, the Brembo Grand Prix of Italy. This marks the third consecutive year that the Italian GP has Brembo as its Title Sponsor, with its logo prominently displayed on the most iconic curves of the Tuscan circuit, from San Donato to Arrabbiata.
Moreover, this year the two Italian icons share a fiftieth anniversary: in 1976, the Mugello International Circuit hosted its first GP, and also in 1976, Brembo brakes made their debut in the 500 World Championship.
GP Data
According to Brembo engineers who for the 11th consecutive year work closely with all MotoGP teams, the Mugello International Circuit, 5.245 km long, falls into the category of moderately demanding circuits for brakes. On a scale from 1 to 6, it has a difficulty index of 3 despite the brakes being used 10 times for a total of 31 seconds per lap. However, only 2 braking points are classified as Hard, 4 as Medium, and another 4 as Light. The load on the brake lever for the entire race is limited, just 814 kg per rider.
The toughest curve
The toughest curve of the Mugello International Circuit for the braking system is the first one: MotoGP bikes go from 337 km/h (a value that increases in case of slipstream) to 94 km/h in 5.4 seconds, covering 291 meters thanks to the 5.5 kg load on the brake lever. The deceleration is 1.5 g, the Brembo brake fluid pressure reaches 11.8 bar, and the temperature of the carbon discs hits 740°C.
One, two, three
The 1976 Nations GP was the 3rd of the season: all 3 races in the 500cc class were won by Barry Sheene, who placed a strong bet on the title, also because the regulations of the time limited the count to 6 results. In addition to the Englishman, the very young Marco Lucchinelli stood out, riding the Suzuki of the Gallina team: the Ligurian was 3rd in France and 2nd in Austria but got injured during tests at Mugello. His place was taken by Virginio Ferrari, who finished 3rd at the Nations GP. In its first 3 races of the premier class World Championship, the Gallina team thus achieved 3 podiums.
A friend is a treasure
The Gallina team was the first to use Brembo braking components in the World Championship. In 1976, in an attempt to improve the braking of his Suzuki RG 500, owner Roberto Gallina went to Brembo, which was already equipping several of the most powerful Italian road bikes of the time. For the Suzuki, he proposed the use of a two-piston caliper with 38 mm pistons, lightened with titanium screws and material removal in non-critical areas. A choice that immediately bore fruit and represents the beginning of all the Brembo innovations developed thereafter.
The 2016 sprint
Ten years ago, at the Mugello International Circuit, Jorge Lorenzo defeated Marc Marquez by 19 thousandths with Andrea Iannone finishing 3rd: Yamaha, Honda, and Ducati made it to the podium, but there were no doubts about their brakes because 2016 was the first year all teams used Brembo. At the time, they had a light-duty caliper for use with standard pads and a heavy-duty caliper for use with high-mass pads. Carbon discs, on the other hand, were only available in diameters of 320 mm and 340 mm.