Marvel at F1’s new 2018 brakes

Brakes are quite important. Especially if you’re doing say, 200mph down the back straight in a Formula 1 car.

Brembo knows this. It has a certain speciality when it comes to slowing down really fast moving, heavy downforce objects with humans on-board. For the 2018 Formula 1 season, the company has revealed its new brake setup. And we can’t stop staring at it.

Sure, there’s a lot of technical talk about having to deal with the increase in weight thanks to the ‘Halo’ safety system, and increased tyre widths and brake torque. But really, you want some Big Numbers.

The ‘most extreme’ brake discs feature a whopping 1,500 ventilation holes – 100 more than 2017’s discs. Brembo has ‘miniaturised’ elements of the brake by wire system, and lightened the aluminium-lithium calipers.

Most teams will opt for the 32mm thick front and 28mm thick rear discs, and some will get four-piston calipers on the rear for better lightness (six pots are on the front, naturally).

Each team works with Brembo to tailor brakes specific to their cars – some want less-stiff calipers, others, the reverse. Either way, whichever setup they choose stays with the car for the whole season. So it’s important to choose… wisely.

Because on those heavy-braking circuits, caliper temps hit 200c, easy. Each team orders between ten and 15 sets of calipers for the year, each one with a life expectancy of 10,000km. They also get between 140 and 240 discs and 480 pads.

Now enough numbers. Just look at it. Hypnotic, isn’t it? No? Just us then.