The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is over eight rounds across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and the Middle East. There are races of varying distances, from the shortest at 6 hours to the longest at 24 hours, with the championship’s flagship race, the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, remains one of the world’s greatest sporting events.
With multiple cars racing simultaneously across 3 categories, with Hypercar becoming the top class in endurance since 2021, and the FIA World Endurance Championship have served as a key testing ground for Brembo's braking solutions, alongside Formula 1. It presents a broader challenge, combining performance with durability and reliability. With 31 wins in the race, Brembo has used Le Mans to experiment with innovative solutions, especially in the GT classes, which resemble road car systems more than F1. For Brembo, WEC represents not just a tough test, but also a chance to offer tailored braking solutions for teams across all classes.
Our approach to the WEC championship is based on the desire to offer complete braking solutions for the cars competing in the three classes (Hypercar, LMP2, and LMGT3), enabling each team to find the right balance between lightness, performance, and reliability. To excel in the most comprehensive motorsport competition in the world, we must embrace not only the challenges of performance but also those of endurance, consistency, and reliability.
Caliper
For nearly two decades, Brembo has supplied monobloc calipers made from an aluminum-lithium alloy to prototypes in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
In line with the FIA technical Regulations, all brake calipers must be made from aluminium materials with a modulus of elasticity no greater than 80 GPa and Brembo's aluminum-lithium alloy calipers offer Hypercars the maximum weight savings without compromising stiffness, which is essential for optimal braking performance throughout the entire race, from the first lap to the last, without performance degradation.
Disc
To handle over 4,000 braking events during the 24-hour race, many of which involve decelerations exceeding 200 km/h, Hypercars rely on Brembo's carbon discs, which are 38mm thick and 380mm in diameter. No other material offers such a perfect combination of lightness, high thermal conductivity, and resistance to thermal expansion at high temperatures, as carbon does.
Thanks to regenerative braking, Brembo's discs require only 432 ventilation holes to help reduce the temperature of the braking system. During the race, the temperature of the discs fluctuates between 250°C and 850°C—high values, but within the normal range for carbon.
Pad
Thanks to the introduction of new friction materials in the third millennium, which offer significantly lower wear rates than previous generations, Brembo pads can guarantee consistent performance from start to finish of the race without the need to replace them even once.
However, the friction material used in these pads is also designed to prevent so-called glazing, which can occur especially during cooling phases. When the braking system’s temperature drops too low, Hypercars risk a reduction in braking efficiency and premature disc wear.
Caliper
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category sits directly under the Hypercar category. The regulations also for this category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans specify that the caliper body of cars must be made from an aluminum alloy with an elasticity no greater than 80 GPa. For budget reasons, they are usually machined from an aluminum billet rather than an aluminum-lithium forging as for the Hypercar. Nevertheless, all the cars in this category choose Brembo calipers.
Machined from solid billet, the LMP2 monobloc aluminum calipers are limited to no more than six pistons, and the cross-section of the pistons must be circular. The goal remains the same: to provide the best possible braking from start to finish, without unwanted performance loss or reliability issues.
Disc
LMP2 cars can also use 380mm carbon discs, but with a thinner thickness of 34mm. In comparison, Hypercars use larger and thicker discs to handle their higher performance demands. The difference in ventilation holes is even more pronounced: LMP2 discs have only 48 ventilation holes—just a ninth of those on Hypercars—because the overall performance, both engine-related and aerodynamic, and thus the braking performance, is lower.
Pads
In combination with the carbon discs, LMP2 cars use carbon pads. The durability of the carbon pads, combined with the efficiency of the carbon discs, ensures that LMP2 cars can achieve optimal braking performance throughout the entire endurance race, without any replacement of the brake parts during the 24h races.
Caliper
This GT3 category will focus on amateur drivers and private teams, with Two-door road-legal sports cars that have undergone several modifications from the production specs donor cars, specific to be compliant with the FIA WEC, including Balance of performance adjustments (BOP).
Modifications include torque sensors, luminescent numbers and three classification diodes on their flanks: Twenty-three cars have entered in the LMGT3 category at the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans: Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren and Porsche While the LMGT3 cars have lower top speeds, their braking events last longer, not because of the friction material used, but due to the grip the car can develop and the weight of the vehicle.
This means the calipers must act on the discs for over four hours, which accounts for more than a sixth of the entire race. For this reason, LMGT3 cars also use Brembo monobloc calipers machined from solid billet.
Discs
Due to regulatory restrictions on the use of carbon, all LMGT3 cars are equipped with cast-iron discs, a material that offers excellent durability and does not need to reach high temperatures to provide good braking performance.
The discs used are composite 2-piece cast-iron braking surfaces (390x35mm) with an aluminum bell connected through a tooth system that allows for more effective transmission of braking torque and improves resistance to thermomechanical stress. This system allows for both radial and axial floatation, reducing the overall weight of the disc and providing a significant advantage in modulability. However, drivers must be cautious to avoid thermal stress, which can occur if temperatures exceed 750°C.
A Brembo’s cast-iron discs for LMGT3 cars are designed to last over 4,000 km.
Pad
In combination with the cast-iron discs, LMGT3 cars use sintered material pads. These are not street car pads, but specially designed friction material for racing, as LMGT3 drivers are required to make two braking events per lap that last over five seconds, with stopping distances exceeding 300 meters.
Debut and victory in Group C
Brembo made its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 1980s, although the initial supplies were for a few teams that were not very competitive. This was the era of Group C, still nostalgically remembered by millions of fans. In 1987, Richard Lloyd Racing turned to Brembo to equip its Porsche 962 for the 200 Miles of Norisring, the 6th round of the World Endurance Championship, consisting of 2 heats of 100 miles each.
With this car, Mauro Baldi won Race 1, and Jonathan Palmer came in 2nd in Race 2. Within a few months, all Porsche 962s switched to Brembo brakes, followed by Toyota, Mazda, and from 1988, the Sauber C9, developed in collaboration with Mercedes and equipped with 14-inch self-ventilated discs and Brembo calipers. This car won 5 races in the championship but did not start in France due to tire issues.
Sauber-Mercedes made a strong comeback in 1989, achieving a double victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, during which they reached speeds of 400 km/h in qualifying. The winning team consisted of Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter, and Stanley Dickens, finishing 5 laps ahead of the sister car driven by Mauro Baldi, Kenny Acheson, and Gianfranco Brancatelli. Despite the effectiveness of Brembo brakes in slowing these cars down, the performance was deemed excessive by the FIA, which in December banned straights longer than 2 km, leading to the introduction of two chicanes on the Mulsanne straight.
Brembo solidifies its presence in endurance racing
1991 was a historic year for motorsport as Mazda became the first Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The achievement was made possible by the 787B, equipped with a Wankel rotary engine, driven by Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler, and Bertrand Gachot, featuring Brembo carbon discs and calipers. The model presented in France stood out for its larger air ducts, enhancing brake cooling.
In 1992-1993, the Peugeot 905 Evo (first the 1B and then the 1C) triumphed, the result of a program launched by Jean Todt, who later moved to Ferrari, winning everything with Brembo. From 1994 to 1998, Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times with different cars, all equipped with Brembo carbon discs and 4-piston calipers. In 1995, McLaren triumphed for the first and only time in its history with the F1 GTR, taking advantage of the rain to beat the prototypes, aided by Brembo 6-piston calipers and carbon-ceramic discs.
Brembo discs and brake pads last 24 hours
In the 2000s, Audi emerged as a dominant force, winning 3 consecutive editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 5 more in a row after losing its unbeaten record in 2003. This success was primarily thanks to the R8, which not only boasted great power but also, with the FSI system, could complete one more lap than its competitors before needing to refuel.
The reduced time spent in the pits was also due to the new Brembo friction material: in the 2001 edition, Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro, and Tom Kristensen won without replacing any discs or pads. In 2006, with the first victory of the R10 TDI, Brembo introduced aluminum/lithium 6-piston monobloc calipers, and in 2008, they implemented the spline drive, a solution borrowed from F1 that replaced the bushings previously used to connect the disc and bell.
En Plain: 10 Brembo victories in 10 editions
In the first half of the 2010s, Audi continued its dominance in endurance racing with the R10 TDI and then the R18 e-tron quattro, both equipped with Brembo 6-piston calipers. Brakes became increasingly important for acceleration and cornering, as unsprung masses affect the overall performance of the car. Brembo responded by reducing the size and weight of its components.
Specifically, the thickness of the discs was decreased from 35 mm to 30-32 mm, and the thickness of carbon pads was reduced from 31.5 mm to 26 mm, without compromising braking effectiveness or reliability.
Starting in 2015, Porsche entered a golden triad, with the 919 Hybrid, featuring a turbo gasoline engine with two energy recovery systems, winning 3 consecutive editions of the transalpine endurance race. The decade ended with Toyota's double victory, with Fernando Alonso achieving a perfect record for Brembo: 10 editions won out of 10 contested.
The return of Ferrari in the centenary year
After a trio of victories for the TS050 Hybrid in the closed-door race, Toyota won 2 more editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the GR010 Hybrid. However, all attention was on the 2023 edition, the Centenary race: for this occasion, Brembo became the Braking Technology Provider, supplying its braking systems to 44 of the 62 cars at the start.
Eight of these cars swapped the lead an impressive 35 times, and in the end, it was the 499P driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado that brought Ferrari back to the top of the Le Mans podium, ending a drought that had lasted since 1965.
Like all cars coming out of the Ferrari factory, this Hypercar also features a Brembo braking system: 380 mm diameter carbon discs with 432 ventilation holes, operated by 6-piston aluminum calipers weighing 2.4 kg. The 499P repeated its success in 2024, again with Brembo's support.