To handle a subject competently, it's not enough to have read the bibliography; you need to be present in the field. Since the birth of the Superbike World Championship in 1988, Brembo brakes have taken to the track, immediately setting the standard, as evidenced by the record: 38 Constructors' titles won and 34 Riders' titles claimed by motorcycles equipped with Brembo braking components.
A track record that certifies Brembo's undisputed dominance among production-based motorcycles, as testified by manufacturers worldwide who demand Brembo brakes for the original equipment of their superbikes.
Drawing on this vast know-how, reaffirmed by the supply to 12 of the 13 teams competing this year in the Superbike World Championship, Brembo technicians have sought to classify the difficulty of all tracks in terms of braking system.
Numerous variables were considered in the analysis, which also represent parameters analyzed when new Brembo components are designed. Let's take a look at the most significant ones, from which the ranking of the most challenging circuits for the brakes in the Superbike World Championship is derived.
The most violent braking
One of the factors that allows circuits to be correctly classified is the intensity of the braking: in Great Britain, Hungary, Aragon, Cremona, and Estoril there are 4 braking points in the High category, the maximum for effort required from the brakes and the rider. Misano and Jerez have 3 each, Assen, Most, and Magny-Cours have 2. However, at Phillip Island there is not even one High braking point, and at Portimao there is only one.
High braking points are characterized by the use of brakes for over 3 and a half seconds with loads on the lever of at least 4 kg, decelerations not less than 1.4 g, and brake system pressures of over 9 bar.
An additional element that affects the difficulty of a track is the number of braking points per lap. At Jerez, for example, Superbike riders use the brakes in 10 of the 13 corners of the track, at Portimao (Portuguese Round) in 11 of the 15 corners, and at Aragon in 11 of the 17 corners.
On the other hand, at Phillip Island and Donington Park, Superbike riders apply the brakes only 7 times per lap, at Balaton Park and Estoril 9 times.
Naturally, the higher this value, the more the braking system is put to the test. However, the British circuit is much more demanding on the brakes compared to the Australian one because a third variable comes into play.
The arrangement of braking
The number of brakes in a lap can indeed be misleading because it says nothing about their spacing. Very hard braking, typical of stop-and-go tracks, significantly increases the temperature of the brakes, but if they are separated by large stretches of track, they allow the braking system to breathe.
Conversely, intense braking one after the other hinders the cooling of the braking system, as happens at Donington Park: first there is the braking at the Fogarty Esses (curves 9 and 10) from 272 km/h to 110 km/h, then after a short straight comes the Melbourne Hairpin (curve 11) with another braking from 237 km/h to 51 km/h.
The final judgment
The Brembo technicians took into account all these variables and others that are more difficult to quantify to classify the effort required by the braking systems of the 12 circuits of the 2026 Superbike World Championship. Useful data were collected in past editions, although for Balaton Park (Hungarian Round) only the telemetry from 2025, the first year of use, is available.
For the occasion, a scale from 1 to 5 was used: the lowest value, obtained from Phillip Island and Assen, corresponds to a modest involvement for the brakes. The stress is instead maximum for Donington Park and high for Most, Magny-Cours, Aragon, Estoril, and Jerez.