Formula One brake supplier Brembo classifies Turns 6, 8, 10 and 13 as “hard” braking events, with Turn 13 posing one of the biggest decelerations with cars slowing from 199mph to 93mph in around 50 metres. Every year, as teams push ever closer to the cooling limits, the challenge for engineers gets increasingly hard.
Extra difficulty comes from the fact that in recent years the brake duct and drum designs have become increasingly more complex, as teams try to balance the needs of brake cooling with closed channel effects that improve aerodynamic performance.
autosport.com looks at how Scuderia Ferrari decided to approach the 2018 Canada weekend. This year the Maranello team continued the recent trend of using some of the brake duct’s design to power a blown axle, improving the aerodynamic footprint around the wheel rim and tyre, yet this doesn’t compromise brake cooling, with the designers carefully sending cooled airflow to the brake discs and calipers. The brake drum also features numerous apertures from which heat being generated by the brakes can be released.
All of this hot air is carefully placed in order to maximise how the heat is rejected in order that it also interacts with the wheel rim and consequently the tyre in the most effective manner too.
As usual, each team comes up with its own solutions based on individual requirements and the prevailing conditions, which often leads to teams trialling various solutions during free practice sessions to see what suits each driver’s needs.
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