F1: Hamilton brake failure being investigated

Formula 1 brake supplier Brembo believes it can get to the bottom of why Lewis Hamilton suffered an unexpected failure at the German Grand Prix.

Hamilton's hopes of fighting for victory at Hockenheim were wrecked when a right front brake disc failed during qualifying, pitching him off the track and in to the barriers. The incident prompted Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg to switch to Carbone Industrie discs for the race, only escaping penalties because the FIA accepted the discs were similar in weight, inertia and function.

Brembo is continuing its investigation into the failure – which caused the disc to split into three pieces – but insists there are no major concerns about its products as the problem appears to be a one-off.

"We are calm because of the fact that it was a single episode and because we will discover the causes which determined the issue," a Brembo spokesman said. "The same material with the same specification has been successfully used this year in more demanding and harder grands prix, such as Canada and Bahrain.

"Each single brake disc is tested on a test bench with stresses and tests in excess of the maximum effort conceivable during the race, so with maximum margins. The causes that can have induced the failure are various and even external, and as soon as we have at our disposal all telemetry data we are able to give correct, complete and true information."