Richard and I were scheduled to have a track day at the Circuit of the Americas with the Ferrari North America people. Before we head off to the track, we wanted to put in new brake fluid into Richard’s Ferrari 458 Italia and my Ferrari F430.

The brake fluid we used is Castrol SRF React brake fluid and performs very well when under high temps like you will experience on the track. Changing the brake fluid on both cars is very simple and can easily be performed using simple hand tools, but it helps to have a Motiv pressurized brake bleeder system. You first need to suck the old fluid out of the reservoir using a brake bleeder vacuum pump.

While I had the wheels off and since I was going to be using the brakes pretty hard, I wanted to also check on my brake pad thickness and brake rotor thickness. You can use a simple brake pad thickness gauge to check on the pads, and a brake caliper gauge.