MotoGP, In Jerez a ton of effort on the brake lever in the entire GP

MotoGP returns to Europe where it is set to remain until mid-September, with the exception of the Kazakhstan GP scheduled for June. The Circuito de Jerez named after Angel Nieto (12+1-time world champion) hosted Moto2, Moto3 and MotoGP testing at the turn of February and March. According to Brembo engineers who work closely with all MotoGP riders, the 4.42-kilometer-long Circuito de Jerez falls into the category of challenging circuits for brakes. On a scale of 1 to 6, it deserved a difficulty rating of 4 because of 11 braking for 33 seconds per lap of brake system operation. The total load on the brake lever applied by each rider over the entire GP approaches a ton.

Long dominant in the lower categories, Spanish riders began to make their mark in the premier class in the second half of the 1990s, thanks to Alex Crivillé: the Catalan was runner-up in 1996, missed a third of the 1997 championship due to injury, finished third in 1998, and became champion in 1999. He triumphed riding the Honda equipped with 290 mm and 320 mm carbon discs as needed and Brembo four-piston calipers. That was the last World Championship in the premier class prerogative of a bike equipped with axial calipers because in 2000 Kenny Roberts Jr. won with the Suzuki embellished with radial calipers. A solution that seemed impossible to achieve, but with tenacity, Brembo engineers managed to put it into practice. The first to experiment with it was the Aprilia 250, followed by the factory Suzuki 500s. And it was precisely the latter's successes that induced the HRC team to employ them, on the finale of the 1999 World Championship, when Crivillé's title was now in the bag.

The hardest corner at the Circuito de Jerez for the braking system is turn 6: the MotoGP bikes go from 296 km/h to 67 km/h in 5.1 seconds in which they travel 229 meters while the riders exert a load on the brake lever of 5.5 kg. Deceleration is 1.5 g, Brembo brake fluid pressure reaches 11.7 bar and carbon disc temperature 700 °C.

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