The technical revolution of 2022 also saw profound changes on the Brakes front. Brembo was the protagonist in this further challenge that faced the teams, with which the Bergamo-based company actively collaborates. Of the ten teams present on the grid, three use discs and friction material from the Italian company, while the entire starting fleet uses Brembo or AP Racing calipers, the latter reality which, however, was recently purchased by the former. But be careful to call it mono-supply, as the pliers made by the Bergamo-based company differ for each team on the basis of the design characteristics required by the individual team.
As proof of this, with the new season the teams have begun to hide their calipers in the pits to jealously guard the secrets of their braking components developed in collaboration with Brembo. The entire grille also expressed appreciation for the way the Italian company reacted to the brake system revolution with the new regulations. In fact, in 2022 there is a limit to the diameter of the ventilation holes of the discs, the impossibility of evacuating hot air outside the wheel unit due to the fairing of the rims and the sealing of the baskets, to which is added the increase of about 50 kg of the weight of the cars which increases the thermal energy to be dissipated during braking. However, Brembo components are performing in an excellent way, so much so that the responsibility for the overheating problems suffered by some teams in the first championship races has been attributed by the teams involved to causes other than the work carried out by the Italian company.
The return of Formula 1 to Europe with the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola provided the opportunity to speak directly with Brembo on the main issues of the new generation of single-seaters. FormulaPassion.it he thus had the opportunity to deal with Stefano Pavantrack engineer for Brembo Racing to support the needs of individual teams on race weekends.
Lots of news at the start of the season, in which we have seen some teams suffer from overheating of the brakes. What is it due to?
“This year the braking system has changed a lot compared to previous years, so everything is a bit new for the teams as well. While the past few years were based on something from the past, through the development of a machine that already existed, this year the rules are different. We must consider that everything starts from a computer simulation and then when you go to the track the situations are a bit different. A trivial example is traffic on the track: it is one thing to simulate a hypothetical condition and another is reality. The cars are also a bit heavier than last year and this has had an impact, as braking is more demanding, raising the temperatures. This is why the teams, especially at the beginning, suffered from overheating, while now they are all catching up. This overheating was due to a combination of factors, with no real trigger. Partly it was the weight and partly the cooling, which this year is more closed ”.
The 2022 cars are heavier than in the past and we know how much the weight gain is recursive, because it forces you to strengthen all the mechanics. All that impact has it had on the brakes?
“In terms of brake mass this year we put on more or less 3 kg on the whole car. The calipers are thicker than last year, because the front disc has gone from 280mm in diameter in 2021 to 328mm this year and clearly the larger disc requires a larger caliper. Obviously then we must also count the weight increase of the disc itself caused by the larger diameter, even at the rear, where we reached 278 mm, while the thickness remained unchanged at 32 mm on both axles. All of this was very interesting for us ”.
How does Brembo collaborate with the teams for the development of calipers?
“The development is based on an initial part of purely simulation studies, to then move on to a phase of actual gripper design. Inside the caliper there are parts which, although not standard by regulation, are practically the same for all teams, such as the pistons. Then we have parts for which you have to actively collaborate with the team and do a real design work. For example, with regard to the mountings, it is the single team that guides and tells where to put them, as the team develops everything that comes into contact with the brake caliper and therefore, depending on where it needs its fixings, you go to intervene. Another aspect is the question of finding the ideal stiffness of the caliper. You can have a very light caliper, but less rigid than a heavier component. The schools of thought are very different: we have teams that have always sought a light caliper, while others favor heavier but rigid calipers. The value of Brembo’s experience lies in trying to make a caliper as light as possible, but which achieves the stiffness requirements requested by the customer. The simulation part is all in this: there are several fairly long calculation cycles with a validated model, therefore with a correspondence between what is simulated and what is seen on the bench. Several iterations are carried out which serve to refine the caliper “.
Why is stiffness so important? What affects the deformation of the caliper?
“When the caliper deforms it means that in general it absorbs more fluid. If you assume that you have a caliper that absorbs little, then when the pistons push against the pad, it does not deform much, which means that less fluid is introduced into the hydraulic circuit, affecting the stroke of the pump and therefore of the pedal, which it runs less, with all that goes with it. For example, it is possible to have smaller tanks and certainly a more ready and reactive system. A more flexible system, on the other hand, means that when the pistons push, the caliper deforms a lot and therefore more fluid is needed. It is a question of compromise ”.
Do we have to deduce that this year, with the teams struggling to get back to the minimum weight, the priority has been the lightness of the calipers?
“That’s not quite the case. Some teams have always favored stiffer calipers and between one team and another there can also be differences in terms of hectograms. It really depends on what the team asks and what your system is like ”.
Pirelli stated that it collaborated a lot with the teams to obtain the simulation data needed to design the new tires in view of 2022. Was this also the case for Brembo?
“Clearly, 2022 is all new for us too. We worked with the teams to try to go in a direction that was the right one, both for us and for them, even in the caliper design phase. It’s a job that lasted years, but in the final phase in which the project had to be closed there was a collaboration with the teams. “
From the data provided by Brembo before each Grand Prix, it can be seen that the deceleration peaks have decreased compared to last year and are now all below 5 g. What is the reason?
“A little is due to the braking, which is different, but we must also consider that they are also simulation data. Surely you will understand how easy it is not always to predict the real data that emerges on the track with the simulation, because the cars are new. Compared to this year, next season the correlation between the simulated and the real will certainly be closer to what we see. The braking has also changed a bit this year. In the first tests the pilots often came to the block. because the car has changed and with it the driving dynamics. This year, the brake requires some very sharp strokes at the beginning and then a different modulation, so you need to have a little more sensitivity between the start and the end of the braking. Last year, however, the cars were different, they weighed less and the rest of the car, including aerodynamics, was different, so the driver had a different type of braking. Now, however, they are all adjusting a bit, while in the first tests there were many blockages ”.
Was there therefore an extension of the braking?
“The braking lengthened there was. On the straight these cars are very fast, perhaps more than last year based on the latest data, but then the corner part is slower. Clearly, therefore, the necessary braking space and time are greater ”.
Brake-by-Wire, on the other hand, is a relatively new component, which arrived in Formula 1 in 2014. In what direction is its development proceeding?
“It is a relatively new component compared to many others. It has evolved a lot and continues to evolve. It is very particular, because it is not purely mechanical, but electro-mechanical. There is an electronic control that manages it, which is not in the hands of Brembo, as it is up to each team to decide how to manage it. On the Brembo side we supply the component to the team who then sets it up with its own electronic controls. He is a somewhat particular component, halfway between us and the teams ”.
How is the knowledge learned on the track transferred to road applications?
“The transfer is not immediate. What has been learned in competitions is not always something easy to put into practice on production cars, for many reasons, ranging from the regulatory aspect to the regulatory one. Clearly there are some technologies that over time pass to series production and others that instead struggle more, also for a matter of costs. It is one thing to make a component for motorsport where costs are very high and another to do it for the production of thousands and thousands, where market rules must be respected ”.
Is it possible that additive manufacturing techniques will be used in the production of grippers in the future?
“At the moment it is not used, because in any case it brings with it different criticalities compared to a traditional processing system, especially in terms of validating the gripper and quality controls. Potentially the technologies are there, but in any case they are not used, especially on a safety component such as the caliper. Costs also vary a lot between additive and traditional technology. Today in Formula 1 the cost is not as secondary as it could have been five or six years ago and it clearly makes a difference on which road to take ”.
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