Brake glazing became a big talking point in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, with AlphaTauri Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly enraged by a problem with his front-left disc and Yuki Tsunoda also struggling with braking problem.
Carbonfibre brakes are difficult to get to work efficiently. They don’t offer any stopping capacity under something like 350C and they don’t like to go over 1000C, otherwise, the wear rate increases dramatically.
If you don’t use them hard enough to get above that 350C, you get what is called glazing. This is when the disc face and the pad face basically form a very shiny smooth surface and you can’t get any bite to induce the heat.
As a driver, when you get that problem it is very difficult to recover and that is when you get inconsistent braking with one side or the other snatching and locking up fairly randomly.
Usually, it only happens when you use fairly new brakes in the wet and it is difficult to apply the necessary braking pressure. This is why you see the mechanics blanking part of the brake ducts when it is wet. Esteban Ocon suffered from this problem in Q1 in Singapore.
Gasly’s complaint was that the team sent him out into traffic that wanted to do a slow outlap and he wasn’t prepared for that, so when he started his fast lap, the brakes were inconsistent. He wanted to wait, which might have allowed him to work the brakes harder and avoid the problem.
What Gasly said
“It’s completely off, I have no efficiency, nothing,” he complained over his team radio.
“I asked to wait! Why?! Why did you do it to the other car and not with me?! No point to do the lap with no brakes, I can’t brake!”
Speaking to the media afterwards, Gasly had calmed down but still projected obvious disappointment.
“It was going well until second set [of tyres in Q1], we were ninth at the time and then the last attempt we glazed the front left disc in the outlap,” he explained.
“We know it’s not first time we had this issue, when we’re in the traffic and can’t heat the tyres and brakes properly, we are more prone to have this issue.
“That’s why I asked to be held in the garage a bit longer, but it didn’t happen.
“Last lap was a waste because I had no efficiency, every time I braked, that front left was completely off so I was locking the tyres.
“Disappointed to not go through because we had the potential to be in Q2, especially at a track like Suzuka. Shame not to deliver the best of the package.”
It has been a below-par season for Gasly and AlphaTauri and as recently as the previous race at Singapore the Frenchman was left fuming at how his race was executed from the pitwall.
He was narrowly ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda coming into the final Q1 runs and was sent out of the garage around 10 seconds before the Japanese driver.
“We need to have a look, I don’t have the answer yet. But it’s not the first time that it has happened.
“Had the problem in Canada in qualifying [when Gasly said he ‘had no front left brake’ and described it as a ‘complete disaster’].
“We know that we’re fighting for hundredths of a second to go through, definitely need everything on the car to be working at its best. Shame it didn’t today.”
Until told by the media, Gasly perhaps wasn’t aware that Tsunoda was likewise expressing brake-related irritations throughout the session.
The local hero had an absolutely monumental lock-up into the final chicane on an earlier Q1 run, and reacted angrily to being told to focus on “straight-line braking”.
But he kept it together late on to escape Q1, before placing an eventual 13th in Q2.
“I had [the problems] both in Q1 and Q2 as well. It was visible first time in Q1 run two, when I had a huge lock-up. Until then the laptime was really really good, but I had a huge lock-up, a bit surprised about that.
“But yeah, in the end they found some issue, and we know how to kind of avoid it – but at the same time it’s quite hard to avoid it, because you have to kind of work hard in the braking in the outlap, at the same time you have to warm the tyre.
“So it was not ideal, for sure. But that’s okay.”
Tsunoda, who says he feels he is getting “extra” at Suzuka from hearing the local fans applaud him as he drives past the grandstands, admitted he was “expecting [a] top-10”.
“Of course, in terms of car performance it’s not in the top 10, I would say, currently. It’s not the best-performing so far. But I would say I had a bit of extra confidence today.”
