DEAR VALENTINO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 100 BRAKES AND 000 DISCS LATER
A career punctuated by records for Valentino Rossi, all broken with Brembo braking systems
Dear Valentino,
More than 25 years ago, we fell in love with your sensitivity when braking and your carefree attitude once you cross the finish line. You were a kid who had in your hands one of the motorcycles that most dreamed of among teenagers of the 1980s and 1990s: the Cagiva Mito 125 that you rode in the Italian championships, already using Brembo brakes at the time. .
Since then, we have come a long way together, or rather the trail, always hand in hand, even if, in our case, it would be more accurate to say hand on the lever. You went from Aprilia to Honda, then to Yamaha, then to Ducati and finally you came back to Yamaha, but you never betrayed us for another brand of braking systems.
Our love is a “love without brakes”, but the brakes are there and there. Nothing and no one has managed to separate us. We had some beautiful moments, some less beautiful ones, but we always remained close, within reach so to speak.
You have broken all the motorcycle world championship records, with a few exceptions: 383 GPs contested, 89 victories in the premier category (and 115 totals), 232 podiums in all categories (and 196 in 500-MotoGP), more 6 points earned. Incredible figures, impossible to achieve without great talent and an infinite desire to improve, day after day, like our philosophy.
We did some counting and discovered that, in the world championship races alone, you used our braking force almost 100 times. If we add the days of free practice, qualifying and warm-up laps, you consumed us like no other but without wearing down our relationship: more than 000 front discs, a little less than 400 brake pads and more 900 liters of brake fluid.
As the years go by, everyone changes, but we were lucky enough to change with you. When, in 1998, you landed in 250 after winning the 125 world championship with 11 GP victories out of 15 – a record that has remained undefeated until now -, you were one of the first to use the latest- born from our family, the radial mount brake caliper.
Today, the radial-mount brake caliper is also found on production motorcycles, but at the time it was a revolutionary innovation. You immediately felt at ease because you knew (and you still know today) that you could always count on us: we did everything to make you feel good. You understood it from the 1998 Japanese GP. And if you got on the podium in the third 250 race, it was not by chance. Since then, you have never stopped using radial-mount brake calipers.
We were also close to you in 2017, helping you get back on track, just twenty-three days after your tibia and fibula fracture. Thanks to the thumb master cylinder, we took care of your right leg as we did back then with Mick Doohan.
Sometimes, of course, there were misunderstandings, like in 2004, when you beat Sete Gibernau with incredible braking, declaring at the end of the race "I braked with my hands, my feet, my ears"... forgetting us in the process. But we didn't get angry and we forgave you.
Or when you won the South African GP in 2004, the first one you competed in with Yamaha, and you went down on the return lap to kneel in front of the bike. For a moment we thought you were going to kiss us, but it was on the windscreen of the M1 that your lips rested. Once we swallowed our initial jealousy, we realized that that was just the way it was.
You have always been very picky, as must be those who want to achieve many victories and are not satisfied with a place in the ranking. You were the first and, until now, the only one to be world champion on motorcycles equipped with engines of 5 different displacements: 125, 250, 500, 800 and 990 cm3.
But above all, you display unequaled sporting longevity, since 20 years and 311 days have passed between the first GP won in the world championship (Czech Republic GP in 1996) and your last victory (Dutch GP in 2017) . For now. No other driver in the world, not even in motoring, can boast such a long list of successes with Brembo brakes.
Dear Valentino, a new great chapter in your life opens today.
We wish you lots of happiness in all areas, sporting or not.
The best is yet to come.
Your Brembo brakes
