In-race brake changes during the Bathurst 1000 could be a thing of the past when Gen3 is rolled out in 2023.
Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess has confirmed plans are afoot to move away from mid-race componentry change, which was first mandated in 2018.
In 2016, Mark Winterbottom suffered a brake failure at The Chase, and in 2017, several teams changed suppliers in the wake of cracking issues.
Since being introduced, the mandate has added another element of strategy as teams try to make the change as quickly as possible.
In recent years, Dick Johnson Racing developed its set-up that replaces the rotor, calliper, and pads collectively.
The more conventional method is to replace the rotor and pads while retaining the calliper.
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With the advent of Gen3, Supercars is planning to do away with the in-race brake change.
Last year the category tendered for a new brakes package, which stipulated a componentry life of 1500 km, which in effect would do away with the rule.
“We certainly don’t want to be changing disks and pads,” Burgess told Speedcafe.com.
“To be honest, we pushed ourselves into changing disks a few years back when we had a couple of failures. So we’ve always been doing it from a safety perspective.
“The tender mandate was to have a disk and pad package that could easily do Bathurst without any concerns.
“We are continuing to put miles on them to make sure that they can do a Bathurst race without us needing to change them.”
Brakes have been a key focal point of recent testing, the sojourn to Symmons Plains presenting Supercars an opportunity to test the system under heavy loads at the Tasmanian circuit’s famed hairpin.
Speedcafe.com understands Supercars isn’t far away from finalising its brake specification, which will be supplied by AP Racing.
“We’re identifying where we’re going with the brakes,” Burgess added.
“We’re playing with some more pad options here and continuing to put miles on the disks.
“One of the targets was to have a disk and brake package that can last longer. Currently, at some of our tracks, we’re using two sets of brakes over a weekend.
“One of our targets was to get through Bathurst without having to do a rotor change and the tracks where we would use two sets generally, try and come down to one.
“That means us putting longer miles on a set of rotors without seeing significant degradation. We’re just validating those things.”
Gen3 testing will continue at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit today.
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