2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of Brembo brakes in the premier class: in 1976, Roberto Gallina’s team, making its first appearance in the 500cc World Championship, decided to rely on Brembo for the braking system of the Suzuki RG 500, ridden in rotation by Marco Lucchinelli and Virginio Ferrari.
Half a century later, Brembo braking components equip every bike on the MotoGP grid, as has been the case since 2016. A kind of monopoly, but without any top-down imposition, since each team is free to choose the brakes it uses during the season. What drives all teams to choose Brembo is the superior combination of performance, reliability and consistency.
At every Grand Prix, as well as during collective tests, Brembo engineers are present in the pit boxes to support and advise teams on the use of braking systems. Using data collected on track and through laboratory simulations, those same engineers have drawn up an assessment of the level of difficulty each circuit poses for the braking system.
Multiple variables are taken into account to compile the ranking of the most demanding MotoGP circuits for brakes. We present them one by one, so that you can understand how these conclusions were reached.
The hardest braking zones
One of the factors that allows circuits to be classified accurately is braking intensity: at Brno there are six High-category braking zones, the highest level in terms of stress on both the brakes and the rider, while in Japan, Hungary, Misano and Valencia there are five. Thailand, the United States, Catalunya, Great Britain, Austria and Malaysia each feature four, whereas Australia and Portugal have just one High braking zone.
High braking zones are characterized by brake application lasting more than three seconds, lever loads of at least 4 kg, deceleration levels of no less than 1.4 g, and braking system pressures exceeding 8 bar.
Another factor that affects how demanding a track is is the number of braking zones per lap. At Lusail, Jerez, Silverstone, Aragón, Misano and Sepang, MotoGP riders use the brakes 11 times per lap. However, these circuits differ greatly from one another, as shown by their respective lengths, ranging from the 4.23 km of the Marco Simoncelli circuit to the 5.9 km of the British track.
There are only six braking zones per lap in Germany and Australia, seven in Thailand and Brazil, and eight in the Czech Republic, Austria and Japan.
It is clear that the greater the number of braking zones, the more the braking system is pushed to its limits, although there is a big difference between having many one- or two-second braking phases and dealing with braking zones lasting four or five seconds.
The disposition of braking zones
The number of braking zones in a lap can also be misleading, because it provides no indication of their layout and therefore of the intervals between them. Very hard braking zones, typical of stop-and-go tracks, raise brake temperatures significantly, but if they are separated by long stretches of track they allow the braking system to gain precious seconds to cool down.
On the contrary, intense braking zones one after another hinder brake cooling, as happens at Spielberg, where the first four corners all require braking phases lasting at least four seconds, with brake lever loads of over 5 kg. This causes braking system pressure to soar, never dropping below 11 bar across those four braking zones.
How Brembo handles the most demanding circuits for brakes
All these considerations would make little sense if the braking system were the same for every track, as was the case up until the 1990s. In those days, it was up to the rider and their sensitivity to adapt braking to the various circuits, trying not to overstress the braking system in order to avoid running into trouble in the second half of the race.
In order to guarantee the same level of effectiveness from the start to the chequered flag, Brembo has introduced different solutions to address the specific characteristics of each track, allowing riders to brake hard in every phase of the race. Generally speaking, the Brembo braking system components that change depending on the difficulty of the circuit are the carbon components—namely discs and pads—while brake calipers and master cylinders remain unchanged.
For example, at Buriram, Spielberg and Motegi, being top-category circuits, in the case of a Sprint or a race declared dry, riders may choose exclusively 340 mm finned or 355 mm finned discs, as smaller-diameter brake discs (i.e. 320 mm) are explicitly forbidden, while 340 mm non-finned discs (namely 340 High Mass or Standard Mass) are not banned by FIM regulations but are not recommended.
When it comes to braking performance, the size of the brake discs (and pads as well) really does matter. The braking torque of a disc brake is the result of the product of three factors: the effective radius of the disc, the clamping force, and the coefficient of friction. The larger the disc diameter, the greater the braking torque. By increasing the disc diameter, the effective radius increases, and therefore, with all other variables remaining unchanged, braking torque is increased.
On the other hand, larger-diameter discs also involve an increase in weight, which negatively affects the overall performance of MotoGP bikes: since these are unsprung masses, any braking system component that is heavier than necessary has an adverse impact on acceleration and changes of direction.
In addition to the three different diameters (320 mm, 340 mm and 355 mm), Brembo brake discs are available in three material specifications: Standard, High Mass and Extreme Cooling (or finned). High Mass discs are characterized by a larger braking surface compared to Standard discs. The size of the braking surface is linked to the temperatures reached by the discs: when temperatures are lower, Standard discs are preferable thanks to their lighter mass.
Another factor to be taken into account is the height of the braking band. The reason lies in heat exchange: a brake disc with a taller braking band promotes better heat dissipation and reduces the tendency of the braking system to suffer from fading, thus allowing multiple close-spaced braking phases without issues compared to a disc with a lower braking band of the same diameter.
The most extreme case is represented by Extreme Cooling brake discs, which feature a tall braking band and fins on the inner part of the disc that increase the heat exchange surface, offering improved cooling with positive effects on braking performance.
Of course, on the most demanding circuits it is not only the brake discs that undergo a dimensional upgrade, but also the pads. On the toughest tracks, in combination with larger-diameter, high-band discs, oversized pads are usually employed, featuring fins designed to improve heat exchange.
The final assessment
Taking all these variables into account, along with others that are more difficult to quantify, Brembo technicians have classified the level of demand placed on braking systems by the 22 MotoGP circuits of the 2025 season. Data collected during previous editions proved useful, as did simulations carried out both on computers and on test benches—especially for the Brazilian Grand Prix, which returns to the calendar this year at the brand-new Autódromo Internacional de Goiânia named after Ayrton Senna.
For this purpose, a scale from 1 to 6 was used: the lowest value, assigned to Phillip Island, corresponds to a modest level of brake involvement. Slightly higher is Assen, which earns a score of 2. Stress levels are instead at their maximum (6) at Buriram, Spielberg and Motegi, and very high (5) at Montmeló and Sepang.