Promoted: What’s different about Brembo’s unique FE brakes

Ironically, as the exclusive supplier of the whole braking system for Formula E, the renowned Brembo name is actually accelerating its reputation for technical excellence and leading edge design for its customers.

Brembo secured a deal to supply the entire grid through the chassis tender agreement, which was successfully won by Spark Racing Technologies (SRT) for the second generation of cars.

This will run until the end of the 2021-22 season for the series, which gets full FIA World Championship status later this year.

The braking system on a Formula E car is, so far, unique in motorsport, and comprises two controls – a conventional foot pedal, and also a ‘regen paddle’ on the steering wheel. These controls can be used independently, but are also used together during certain braking phases, depending on the characteristics of the track.

Brembo’s new braking system for the Gen2 car is made up of discs, pads, calipers, bells and a tandem master cylinder.

Reaching increased peak speeds means that the brakes are applied longer, for turn-in entry at the optimum speeds.

The most obvious difference though was still that the hardware had to ensure an entire race distance without a drop-off in performance.

There are some brake master cylinder options through SRT’s catalogue of components, while brake lines and brake fluid can be chosen freely, but with teams reverting to the same two or three trusted suppliers, usually depending on if you have a road car affiliation with the companies.

But the brake material and key components such as pads and calipers are all supplied by Brembo and exquisitely designed and manufactured in carbon.

The front discs are 24mm thick and at the rear, they are 20mm thick. The front brake pads come in at 18mm thick and the rear pads 16mm. There are 70 ventilation holes for the front (6.2mm in diameter) and 90 for the rear (4.2mm in diameter).

The design proposal was based on the requirements that SRT shared, with one of the most important necessities being very lightweight, cost-effective, and moreover, being capable of providing brake friction capabilities that are usable in both very high and very low temperature brackets.

“Based on the way in which you are using the regenerative system or not, the brake system has to be useful and flexible in all the races of the season and has to be the best compromise both for driver and engineer,” says Brembo’s Formula E project leader, Giovanni Clemente.

The track support element of Brembo’s work is vital in Formula E where every precious second counts in concentrated timetables, as practice, qualifying and the all-important race take place in little over eight hours.

They also make sure they are scrupulously fair, with parity among the teams being of top priority.

“We work closely with team engineers and we try to understand how they can set up the braking parameters in order to let our braking system provide the best performance,” adds Clemente.

“With the races taking place on what we call hostile environment with street tracks and in hot temperatures like Mexico City and Santiago working with the teams and how they optimise the brake-by-wire technology, in order to obtain and blend between the regen system and the friction situation is crucial.”

Brembo provides the front AVR callipers, which are oxidised and made with aluminium alloy.

This is a special and distinct technology patented by the company and has set it apart in brake supply for the last half a century and sees a huge weight saving and increased stiffness, which is perfectly suited to Formula E in particular.

The brake pads and brake discs are pure carbon fibre, while Brembo also provides a ‘tandem’ master cylinder which has a front and rear chamber, the latter of which is connected to the BBW system.

The brake discs operate in combination with a front calliper and one rear calliper unit, both have four pistons. The front callipers use 30-36mm pistons and the rear ones use 26-28mm.

Both are billeted from a single block of material and made of oxidised aluminium alloy. The weight comes in at a remarkable 1.2kg (2.6 lb) for the front calliper and 1kg (2.2 lb) for the rear.

With a view to cost-effectiveness, Brembo produced an aluminium housing with linear bushings and a single-stage tandem master cylinder.

As well as performance, Formula E’s cost-effective ethos is also at the forefront of Brembo’s mission.

“We also have to take in to account the wear-rates, because in order to be cost efficient, you cannot have a material that wears so much,” describes Clemente.

“So, in order to ensure that the teams do not spend so much of their budget on the brakes we have products that can last four or five races.”

Formula E and Formula 1: Differences in Brake Systems

Brembo’s activity in F1 sees a highly personalised menu of products available for teams to choose and work closely with their engineers.

Conversely, Formula E’s one-size fits all system is designed to be multi-adaptable in any given weather or temperature situation.

Here are the key differences between the two championships: