Lemmy,
F1 cars typically are very well balanced front-to-rear (as well as side-to-side) during braking, with regards to both mechanical and aerodynamic forces. So each tire should require fairly equivalent braking capacity.
F1 cars use CRC (Carbon Reinforced Carbon) discs and pads. The actual physical size of the rotors (ie. the OD and thickness) and thickness of the pads is determined by mainly two criteria: First, since the pads and rotors both wear at similar rates, there must be enough pad and rotor disc thickness to safely last an entire race without becoming too thin. Second, the rotor disc itself is
not sized by braking torque requirements. It is sized to provide a thermal mass that is capable of absorbing and dissipating the heat generated during braking, without exceeding the temperature limits of the CRC rotor materials. Even though CRC has a very high temperature limit (>1500degF), it will still suffer oxidation degradation above a certain temperature.
The brake calipers themselves are likely the same front-to-rear, since the clamping force needed is fairly similar. And any small differences can be compensated for by the driver using the brake bias adjuster. Each caliper itself actually has different sized pistons from leading edge to trailing edge, to counter the effects of the approach action friction on the pads. So what that means is that there are mirror image calipers from left side to right side.
Regards,
Terry
