
So, the first day of my trip to the Italian GP with Shell Helix has come to an end and it has been pretty eventful. I was planning to blog about my experience with the very high-tech F1 simulator first, but that’ll have to wait until I get the video footage.
Instead, let me share a few interesting bits of information I learned from Shell’s Ian Albiston, the man with the high-pressure job of ensuring that the F1 team gets the right lubricants (including engine oil and fuel), for every circuit.
You may be under the impression that a fuel is a fuel and an engine oil is an engine oil, but this is not so. It is one of the very few areas of Formula 1 that is not subject to pages and pages of legislation, and as such the lubricants engineers can essentially do as they please, which according to Ian, makes them giggle like schoolgirls with excitement.
The result is that oils are developed for a specific engine. Furthermore, oils with different characteristics are used for different circuits. Take this weekend’s Italian GP at Monza, as an example. According to Ian, drivers spend 76 per cent of the lap at full throttle, and therefore engine speeds of up to 18 000 r/min. The cooling properties of an oil at this circuit is therefore of high importance because the pistons will get very hot.
Further adding to the importance of a good lubricants supplier in F1 is the so-called 2007 “engine freeze” regulation – which provisionally stopped most engine development – and the current in-season testing limitations. These rules do not apply to the oils used in F1 cars, so if Shell (or any other lubricants supplier), can develop a new oil that delivers a power advantage, then its team will indeed be very happy. In the words of Ferrari’s Chris Dyer, it’s “horsepower for free”.
But it’s not only about the sport. Shell is in F1 also because it provides an extreme test bed that influences the make-up of the oil and lubricants we use in our cars, too. According to Ian, the building blocks of the oil used in F1 is the same as we use in our road cars, but the percentages are different, because the requirements for road cars are different. For example, a road car needs to be able to start in temperatures from as low as -40 Celsius, which doesn’t apply to F1 cars.
The building blocks include, obviously, the base oil, anti-foaming elements (crucial in F1 due to high engine speeds), friction modifiers (less friction = more power), active cleaning agents and viscosity index improvers, among others. The cleaning agents in Shell Helix currently used for road cars were first developed in F1.
So, fuel and lubricants sponsors are not only in F1 to advertise, but also to test and develop new technologies. Check out the video below for more on this topic, but to wrap up this particular post, here are a few interesting facts about Shell in F1, and specifically in association with Ferrari:
- Shell worked with Enzo Ferrari from the very early days of Ferrari, and though it has not been a partner for every season since then, the relationship is one of the most enduring in the sport.
- Shell powered Ferrari to its first-ever F1 win at Silverstone in 1951.
- In this partnership, Ferrari has won 12 Drivers’ titles and 10 constructors crowns.
- The very first road-going Ferrari left the factory with Shell oil/fuel, and the same applies to every new Ferrari today.
- A team of Shell engineers travel to each F1 race and is equipped to give valuable information to the team on the state of the engine by evaluating the wear metals in the engine oil – it takes only 30 seconds!
- 55 scientists work more than 21 000 man hours every F1 season to provide Ferrari with the best lubricants.
- The Shell V-Power race fuel containts 200 different constitutions
- Shell hydraulic fluid used in F1 must be filtered so finely that particles 20 times smaller than the width of a human hair are removed.
Source: Shell Helix
I am currently in Italy as a guest of Shell Helix. Besides the information above that (mostly) came from an interview with Ian Albiston, you can also look forward to a blog on my stint behind the wheel of Ferrari’s Euro 1,5 million simulator, a photo gallery of my visit to the Ferrari museum and, of course, a wrap-up on the experience of viewing the Monza GP on Sunday. Follow me on Twitter for daily updates and facts that could win you some cool Shell Helix/Ferrari hampers.