Brakes will feel the heat in 2011, im really tired and bored of talking and listening and reading about the new tyres and degradation and the whole bullshit. The tyre is one for everybody, the brakes aren’t. Here we can say we have something for the teams to master
Consider this:
They’ll stay the same size as in 2010, but will be subjected to much heavier wear. The major talking points of 2011 so far have been tyre degradation, the return of KERS and the introduction of the moveable rear wing. Brake wear has hardly got a look in even though, under the new regulations, brakes will be working harder than ever.
There are two reasons for the increased wear. First, top speeds will be at least 9mph higher than in 2010, courtesy of the drag-reducing moveable rear wing and KERS; and second, the minimum weight of the cars has risen from 620kg to 640kg.
But despite this extra speed and weight, brake size remains the same as in 2010. “The brakes are definitely working harder,” Williams technical director Sam
Michael told F1 Racing Magazine. “We’ve had to increase brake cooling on this year’s car because there’s a larger amount of energy to dissipate. We’re still operating on the limit though, as bigger brake ducts mean less aero efficiency.” Any team going the wrong side of that limit at a heavy-braking circuit like Montreal will likely pay the price.
Significantly, this extra demand on the brakes can also be felt inside the cockpit.
“On long runs,” said Force India’s Adrian Sutil, “our braking distances are changing more than in the past. Our braking points are going to change by as much as six or seven metres during the course of a race.”
It’s yet another intriguing factor in a season that promises to be full of variables.
