In the present study, thermal striping development on friction bands of brake discs is investigated through an experimental and numerical analysis. A test consisting of a series of several hundred severe brakings was carried out on a specific bench at PSA Peugeot Citroën. The experimental observations of the crack network evolution and a numerical analysis of a brake disc with a single crack helped to propose a macroscopic criterion capable of predicting the criticality of the network, namely, its ability to lead to the complete failure of the structure. In addition, a numerical analysis of the crack shielding process is developed whose results are compared with experimental findings.