After the Thailand GP dominated by the Marquez brothers, MotoGP moves to South America for the Argentina GP, which returns to the calendar after a year of absence.
For the ninth time, it will be held in Termas de Rio Hondo, a town located on the banks of the Dulce River, in the northwest of the country. Previously, races were held in Buenos Aires, which in 1961 hosted the first edition of the Argentina GP. It was precisely in 1961 that Brembo was founded, and in 2025, it celebrates 50 years of presence in world motor racing competitions.
The GP data
According to Brembo technicians who work closely with all MotoGP riders, the 4.806 km long Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit falls into the category of moderately demanding circuits for brakes. On a scale from 1 to 6, it has earned a difficulty index of 3 despite the presence of 3 High-category braking zones, counterbalanced by 3 Medium and 2 Light. Each lap, riders use the brakes for just under 29 seconds, equivalent to 29 percent of the race duration.
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The toughest corner
The toughest corner of the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit for the braking system is the fifth because it is preceded by a 1.076-meter straight that allows MotoGP bikes to reach 327 km/h: to tackle the hairpin known as turn 5, riders are forced to slow down to 72 km/h, using the brakes for 5.8 seconds, during which they cover 281 meters, applying a load of 5.8 kg on the Brembo brake master cylinder lever.
Valentino's double victory
Valentino Rossi won his first Argentina GP in 1998 with Aprilia in the 125 class when the race was held in Buenos Aires. However, in 2000, the World Championship left Argentina, returning only in 2014 but in Termas de Rio Hondo. The Doctor won the MotoGP race in 2015, thanks also to Marc Marquez’s crash, who was right behind him on the penultimate lap after a contact between their bikes. That day, Valentino Rossi became the only rider in the world to have triumphed on both Argentine tracks, and to celebrate, he climbed the podium wearing Diego Maradona’s jersey.
The brake setup of the time
The 1998 Argentina GP was the final race of the World Championship. The 250 class was dominated by Aprilia, which won 13 out of 14 races that season, monopolizing the World Championship podium with Loris Capirossi, Valentino Rossi, and Tetsuya Harada: that year, the three were the first to use the innovative radial caliper made available to them by Brembo, an extremely visionary solution for the time, which even the official 500 teams did not employ.
The current brake caliper
Today, more than a quarter of a century later, all MotoGP bikes are still equipped with Brembo radial calipers, which have significantly evolved and been enriched with technological content, starting with the most evident feature, namely the finned body that improves heat dissipation. Often, however, the evolutions and innovations are invisible from the outside.
For example, a distinctive feature of the Brembo radial caliper currently used in MotoGP is the amplification system, which generates a force that adds to the force generated by the hydraulic pressure of the brake fluid on the pistons. With the same force applied by the rider on the lever, the braking torque is multiplied.
Another innovation of the current Brembo radial caliper used in MotoGP compared to the first version from 1988 is its anti-drag system, which, through a spring device, reduces the residual torque phenomenon, preventing the brake pads from coming into contact with the disc when there is no pressure in the system. In other words, the anti-drag system eliminates the unwanted force that would slow down the bike.
There are many other innovations, improvements, and features that distinguish the current Brembo radial caliper from the very first one used by Loris Capirossi, Valentino Rossi, and Tetsuya Harada in 1998, but that is another story.