VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P25
moment we can use standard
discs," the Spanish veteran said.
"Hondas are always within the
temperature range. But if every-
one improves their braking per-
formance, maybe we have to
change."
His crew chief Mike Leitner
spoke about safety concerns.
"With a 16.5-inch wheel and
the bigger discs, you cannot
fit the wheel with the caliper in
place – the disc is too big."
You must remove the caliper, fit
it on the wheel, install the wheel,
then reattach the caliper to the
fork. As well as being more labo-
rious, this entailed disconnect-
ing the brake lines every time,
and left more margin for error.
"I am worried for the safety," Leit-
ner said.
While Mugello is fast, it is not a
hard-braking circuit, with the end
of the long straight the only place
with really hard braking, com-
pared with Motegi's succession
of slow corners connected by
straights. There were even some
worries (said Crutchlow) about
getting enough temperature into
the brakes in the first lap or two.
In the event only four riders
took up the option: Ducati men
Dovizioso and Crutchlow, on the
grounds that they might as well
get used to them, hard-braker
Aleix Espargaro and Lorenzo.
The bigger discs are better not
because of much greater braking
power but because of better heat
dissipation, a Brembo staffer ex-
plained: "I think the next develop-
ment will be some sort of shroud-
ing to prevent them getting too
cool at some tracks."
Brembo released details of the
last of the late brakers after two
days of practice at Mugello, as
measured from team data at the
end of the long front straight. To
nobody's surprise, the winner
was… Marc Marquez.
According to Brembo, speed
drops from a maximum of 223.8
mph (a higher figure than the of-
ficial speed trap at 210 mph) to
76.2 mph for the looping right-
hander, with a tricky downhill ap-
proach. The maneuver takes 6.1
seconds, over 353 yards, with
the brakes reaching some 1290
degrees.
Michael Scott
PHOTO
COURTESY
OF
SUZUKI
RACING
No argument here:
Marc Marquez says
he thinks he might not
need bigger brakes.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
SURGERY FOR HAYDEN
N
icky Hayden is scheduled to
have wrist surgery on Tues-
day – two days after pulling out
of the Italian Grand Prix at Mug-
ello after finding it too painful and
consequently dangerous to con-
tinue.
The problems go back many
years, even before he broke his
scaphoid when he was knocked
off at Valencia in 2011, but he
thought they were fixed after sur-
gery last November to remove
some internal screws that had
loosened. But resultant arthritis
and scar tissue problems flared
up again unexpectedly and un-
prompted at Jerez; then he
smacked it down again when he
was knocked off on the first cor-
ners at Le Mans.
He ran only six laps in the first
practice session and five in the
afternoon, before taking further
medical advice to withdraw.
"This track is worse than Le
Mans, and it's hard to hold on,
continued on next page
