Brakes and brake ducts
Depending on the team (and of their budget), we will have 6 brakes disc sizes to choose. The only difference here is the thickness of the disc, available between 2.3cm to 2.8cm of diameter of the disc (in increments of 0.1cm each). The smaller the brake is, the less rotational inertia it will have (hence improving acceleration and deceleration to some extent), but it will wear away faster. You will also have to provide sufficient cooling as the brake will heat faster than a brake disc of a higher thickness. Cooling is done by choosing one of 7 brake duct settings. We have reason to believe Super Aguri and Midland among other teams have never played with their brake disc thickness, as such we will not permit disc changes to these cars.
The optimum brake temperature is roughly between 450ºC and 700ºC. If the brakes are in this range of temperatures, the car will brake better and stop sooner. If the temperature goes over 1050ºC the brakes will loose power and they will wear very quickly. If the temperature is lower than 200ºC it will feel almost like a car without brakes. Due to this, we can suppose that it will be important to heat up the brakes, especially when a Safety Car comes out, formation laps and to be cautious in the first couple turns when exiting the pits. The main priority will be to have the brakes in their optimum temperature point. Those few meters you can brake later by warming the brakes could make the difference between passing or preventing a pass into turn 1.
Brake pressure, size of the brake disc, size of brake duct, the brake style of the driver, and the type of track all contribute to the temperature and wear rate of the brakes. As a general note, Silverstone has amongst the lowest brake cooling requirements, while Bahrain and Montreal require among the largest ducts.
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