The final third of the MotoGP World Championship season kicks off with the San Marino and Rimini Coast Grand Prix scheduled for September 8-10 on the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Located approximately 20 kilometers from Rimini and just 2 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea, the circuit added the name of the Italian driver who tragically lost his life six years ago on the Sepang circuit in 2012.
The Misano track was designed in 1969 and celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Over the years the circuit underwent many changes until it reached its current configuration of 4.226 meters in 2008.
The World Superbike Championship also uses this circuit and although the Superbikes use the same track configuration, the use of the brakes is very different.
The biggest difference is at Curvone (turn 11) because MotoGP riders are forced to use their brakes (1.3 seconds) to slow down from around 40 km/h, while Superbikes can take the corner at full throttle since They enter at a lower speed.
Naturally, the braking distance for MotoGP is also shorter because they use carbon brakes, which is prohibited in Superbike. This requires MotoGP riders to exert more force each time they pull the brake lever.
The extremely winding nature of the track prevents motorcycles from reaching 300 km/h even once. However, there are five corners that must be taken at less than 90 km/h, so the slowdown is significant. Another problem, in terms of cooling the system, is the air temperature: during the 2016 race, the tarmac temperature was over 43°C.
According to Brembo technicians, who supply 100% of the 2017 MotoGP riders, the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is quite demanding on the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 5, it is rated 3 on the difficulty index, a score that will be found in Valencia.
Demand on the brakes during the Grand Prix
The track's 16 turns correspond to nine braking sections, each very different from the others. Two of them require drivers to brake for almost five seconds, others for 3 seconds and others for just over a second.
During a lap, MotoGP riders use their brakes for 30 seconds, while Superbike riders use their brakes for 29 seconds while there is one less brake (8 instead of 9).
Over the 27 laps of the race, each MotoGP rider uses their brakes for at least 14 minutes.
In MotoGP, a rider applies a force of 41,9 kg compared to the 38,8 kg of Superbike, and as the front runners do 27 turns instead of 21, they apply a total force of 1170 kilos compared to 815 for Superbikes.
The average maximum deceleration of MotoGP is 1.19 G compared to 1.06 G of Superbike.
The most demanding braking
Of the nine brakings of the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, only one is considered demanding for the brakes, 4 are of medium difficulty and the other 4 are light.
For both Superbikes and MotoGP, braking at Quercia (turn 8) is the most demanding on the circuit: MotoGP slows from 294 km/h to 79 km/h in 4.8 seconds and 222 meters. The Superbikes arrive 24 km/h slower, but need a few extra meters and 4.9 seconds to be able to take the corner.
In this, the MotoGP also outperforms the Superbikes for maximum deceleration (1.5 G against 1.3 G) and for the load applied to the lever (6 kg against almost 5,3 kg), but they manage to contain the pressure on the Brembo HTC 64T brake fluid at 10,4 bars compared to 11,4 for Superbikes.
Source: Brembo.com
