Brembo's Challenges in Formula 1's Hybrid Era

In Formula 1’s new hybrid era, Brembo is discovering that stopping has never demanded so much forward motion.

The Italian braking giant walked into 2024 knowing the technical reset would be big. It has turned out to be enormous. Braking in modern F1 is no longer just about discs, pads, and calipers; it is a live, constantly shifting equation between combustion power, electric deployment, and energy recovery. And while teams fight over tenths on track, Brembo is being asked to solve an equation that stretches all the way to 2027.

“Now we have done half a year, so we understand more, and we were focusing on some direction,” race engineer Andrea Dellavedova told RacingNews365. The problem? That direction is already being redrawn.

From 2027, the FIA will alter the balance between internal combustion and electric power. The ratio will move to 58:42 in favour of electric in 2027, then again to 60:40 in 2028. On paper, they are just numbers. For a brake manufacturer, they are a fundamental shift in how the car slows down, how energy is harvested, and how the driver feels the pedal.

“As next year the energy ratio will change, what we learned this year will not be that useful for the new development,” Dellavedova admitted. Brembo had already started thinking about the 2027 braking system. The FIA’s June confirmation forced them to think again. “Now we have to think newly about the system, and we cannot use all the info that we discovered this year for the next one.”

That is the sting: months of data, thousands of kilometres of simulation and testing, suddenly downgraded from roadmap to reference point.

A race against the clock

In F1, everyone talks about development time. For Brembo, the clock is even harsher. The new ratios are still years away, but the parts that will handle them are not.

“Being in a very fast environment, the more time we have to develop the new system, the better it is,” Dellavedova said. Early clarity from the rulemakers is gold dust. “If the communication would happen some weeks before… it's always easier, because we have to design and test the prototype, and then launch the production.”

The timeline is brutal. Teams want components early next year. That means the window between design sign-off and delivery is measured in months, not seasons.

“It’s not something that you can do in weeks,” he explained. The process itself is heavy, industrial, and unforgiving. Carbon discs and materials spend long stretches in ovens, passing through several carefully controlled stages. Calipers sit for hours on precision machines. Each step is slow by necessity, not by choice.

And that is before the real-world proving begins. “Also, the calliper itself, they have to spend a lot of time on the machine. Then there is also the testing. Sometimes we do the testing and the production in parallel.” In other words, Brembo often has to commit to building hardware while it is still learning exactly how that hardware behaves.

The pressure is constant. The margin for error is tiny.

Inside Brembo’s “witch’s kitchen”

If the challenge is huge, Brembo’s base is formidable. The company’s operational and administrative heart beats at Kilometro Rosso, Bergamo’s science and technology park, with manufacturing and commercial facilities spread across 18 countries. But the real magic for motorsport happens in Curno, just down the road from headquarters.

This is the racing lab. This is where F1 braking technology is born.

“We have several dyno test benches that we use to test the new developments in terms of both materials, geometries and also dimensions of the braking system,” Dellavedova said. The benches run almost non-stop: 24 hours a day, six days a week. It is little wonder the facility has earned the nickname of a “witch’s kitchen” — a place where raw materials and ideas are thrown into the fire and emerge as precision tools for the fastest cars in the world.

The key advantage lies in proximity. Research, design, development, and testing sit under one roof.

“The performance is there with both offices and also the production and testing department,” he explained. Designers do not fire off drawings into a distant factory and wait. They walk.

“We are very close, so the designer can work on the laptop, design the new component and in a very fast way they just go to the first floor — the dyno test benches are there with the people working directly on the tests, so they have a very fast way of communicating, and also they can physically inspect the products that they are developing.”

It is an old-school strength wrapped in cutting-edge technology: engineers watching, touching, and refining the parts that will decide braking performance at 300 km/h.

Looking at 2027 with clear eyes

The task ahead remains daunting. The energy ratio changes will reshape how much work the mechanical brakes must do compared to the hybrid systems. Pedal feel, stability, temperatures, wear — all of it will shift. Brembo has to anticipate those changes now, while still delivering flawless systems for this season and the next.

Yet inside Curno, there is no sense of panic. Just a clear, hard-edged realism.

“In terms of timing, we are in line,” Dellavedova said. On performance, he leans on experience. “In terms of performance, based on our experience, yes, because, of course, we are doing the best that we think will be the best for the next year.”

F1’s new era is demanding more from the brakes than ever before. Brembo’s answer is to work longer, think further ahead, and trust the furnace, the machines, and the dynos in that relentless “witch’s kitchen” in Curno.

The cars will change again in 2027. The question now is simple: who will be ready to stop fastest when the next revolution arrives?