MotoGP: Brembo Silverstone braking insights

The MotoGP calendar is now fully within the championship stretch. With both Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi tied on points and Marc Marquez regaining the form that earned him the last two World Championships, the next two and half months are going to be pure dynamite.

This weekend, the series heads to the Silverstone Circuit for the British Grand Prix, which ranks with the Autodromo del Mugello in Florence, Italy and Circuito de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain as one of the fastest and most flowing circuits on the calendar. Brake manufacturer Brembo has released some performance data ahead of the upcoming race revealing that Stowe at the end of the Hangar straight is the both the highest corner entry speed, hardest braking zone and third fastest corner speed on the circuit.

Riders will reach a dizzying 329 km/h (204 mph) before sitting up to grab the brakes at which point they’ll use one, two or three fingers depending on each riders’ preference to put 5.6 kg (12 lbs) of force on the brake lever for some 3.2 seconds. In that time they will have traveled 223 meters (731 feet) and decelerated to 154km/h (94mph).

By comparison, Lewis Hamilton during his pole lap for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix arrived at the same point on the circuit (according to data provided by FOM TV in car footage) at 326 km/h (202 mph). However, at this point, four tires, four larger brakes plus aerodynamics help the F1 car slow down remarkably in just over 2 seconds and in an astonishing 75 meters to a minimum corner speed of 197 km/h (122 mph).

With a MotoGP bike weighing in at 150 kg (330 lbs) plus another 65 kg (143 lbs) for the average rider multiplied by 1.3 g of decelerating force, riders are restraining the equivalent of 280 kg (618 lbs) for the 3.2-second braking event 20 times during the race for this corner alone.