Another 16 rounds took place at Brands Hatch and 10 at Silverstone, for a total of 58 rounds in Great Britain. Only Italy has hosted more, reaching 81 rounds. In the last 2 editions at Donington Park, the spectators have always been at least 52,000.
GP data
According to Brembo engineers who work closely with 13 out of the 14 teams in the Superbike World Championship, the 4.023 km long Donington Park Circuit falls into the category of highly demanding tracks for brakes. On a scale from 1 to 5, it has earned a difficulty rating of 5 because riders use the brakes 7 times per lap for a total of 24 seconds. Of the 7 braking events, 4 are classified as High, 2 as Medium, and only one as Light. Three of the hardest braking points are concentrated between Turn 8 and Turn 11.
The hardest corner of the Donington Park Circuit for the braking system is the first one, due to a brake lever load of 6 kg, one of the highest in the entire championship: at that moment, the speed drops from 261 km/h to 96 km/h in 3.8 seconds, during which the Superbikes cover 174 meters. Riders experience 1.5 g of deceleration while the brake fluid pressure reaches 12.9 bar, another figure with few equals in the season.
The first record?
This weekend at Donington Park, Nicolò Bulega could set the record for laps led in a Superbike World Championship season: the record belongs to Alvaro Bautista, who completed 347 laps in the lead in 2023. So far, Bulega has led 334 laps this season, leaving just 23 laps to his competitors. The record would therefore remain with Ducati and the Panigale V4R, even though they are two different generations of motorcycles, as well as using different Brembo calipers.
To each their own
For the Superbike World Championship, Brembo provides teams with steel discs measuring 336 mm and 338.5 mm in diameter. There are significant differences in terms of thickness, with values of 6.5 mm and 7.1 mm for the smaller ones, and 6.2 mm, 6.8 mm, and 7.4 mm for the larger discs. The choice varies depending on the circuit, except for one team that, to better adapt to the electronic and engine braking qualities of its bike, uses high-mass discs, or high-band discs, for the entire championship.
In 2027
Next year, all motorcycles in the Superbike World Championship will use Hyction, Brembo's innovative carbon-ceramic brake disc: the name Hyction derives from the combination of the terms Hyper and Action. This technology ensures greater performance consistency, higher modulation, reduced wear, and more stable and predictable braking in all conditions. Riders will benefit from a more direct and predictable relationship with braking. In the future, millions of motorcyclists could benefit from this as Superbike serves as a laboratory for developing innovations intended for road applications.