Ceramic brakes in F1?

[Sharky]

I've heard that Porsche is alredy installing ceramic brakes in some 911 Turbos. They seem to ffer great heat resistance (as one would expect to find in a ceramic materials) and they're pretty tough. Are there any plans of using them in F1 in the near future?

[THR]

think you'll find they are baned!
not quite sure tho, but think they have a law about the material they are made from, must be carbon based

[Sharky]

Yeah. I guess they're banned but I would guess that maybe the Teams could ask for that rule to be changed in order to be able to use them.

[Marshal]

I'm not sure that they are banned, but I can't see them being used in F1. In fact I think during last year when Zanardi was having his problems last year, Williams experimented with using Steel discs again. Now you could argue that steel has a bit of carbon in it, but its not exactly carbon based!

The reason Porsche are using ceramic discs (I presume), is they are lighter than conventional steel, and have excellent thermal stability. For similar reasons Lotus use MMC (metal matrix composite) brake discs on the Elise.

However, Carbon/Carbon friction surfaces, as used in F1 and on aircraft are ligther still, and display better friction properties.

The problem with them for road car use is that;

1. They suffer from very high wear rates when being used in optimum conditions.
2. Optimum conditions consist of being at at least 500C, and road use doesn't really get to this level of useage.

[Dino IV]

That's true indeed.

As a matter of speaking there are ceramic brakes in use in F1, but not on the cars you'd expect them to be on.

The CL 55 AMG Pace-car uses them.
Mercedes has produced (and already sold) a small series of Pace-car replica's (55 x CL 55 AMG's) and it's ceramic 8 caliper brakes could be ordered optional. Weight advantage was 50% and brought down brakegear weight per wheel to 6 kg.