Brakes are a funny thing. If you think about it, cars, especially performance cars, are about going, not stopping. But brakes actually help you go faster, not just slow you down. Brembo, the Italian brake component manufacturer has known this since day one, and they have been up to some interesting wizardry lately. That wizardry we will see in action when the 2019 Formula 1 season kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Science of Stopping
Brakes help you go faster like this: The longer you can stay on the gas, the faster you’re going to go, ergo, if you can use your brakes later and harder, you will, effectively, use them less. Brakes are, essentially, energy transformation devices. Since energy can only be changed, never destroyed, brakes take the kinetic energy of your car traveling forward, turn that kinetic energy into thermal energy, which is then dissipated away into potential energy. The first designs, drum brakes, have pretty bad thermal efficiency. Disc brakes have much better thermal efficiency, which is why they can stop your car much quicker than drum brakes. Carbon-based brakes have greater thermal efficiency still, so they can stop your car in an even shorter distance. Disc brakes also have the added benefit of being lighter than drums; carbon brakes are even lighter yet, so it’s a paying proposition all the way around.
Brembo has been providing brakes for Formula One cars for 43 seasons. Brembo operates in 15 countries on three co...