Comments on: Secrets of Ferrari’s fuel wizards

By: KarolMcD

KarolMcD — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:51:08 +0000

Article sounds great. I look forward to the full version.

By: Michel S.

Michel S. — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:01:52 +0000

Taking a wild guess here, but perhaps some of the special additives they used for that 4-stop race are less stable, and degrade with time such that some of the performance advantage is lost with longer runs between stops?

By: Scootin159

Scootin159 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:57:17 +0000

Why is a fuel that gives you a 0.1s advantage a lap improvement only useful with a 4 stop strategy? Sounds as though they just found a .1s advantage from the fuel, and it helped swing the vote to a 4 stop strategy.

Did they not use the ‘special fuel’ the following week for the 2 stop strategy there?

By: KB

KB — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:18:51 +0000

Dont the other manufacturers put in the same effort as Shell then?
I know how much R&D Shell do with Ferrari, but curious as to what the other companies do as well.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:14:10 +0000

They usually have their logos on the side of the car. Off the top of my head:

McLaren – Mobil 1
Toyota – Esso (Exxon)
Renault – Elf (and Red Bull I presume, also Renault engines)
Force India and Toro Rosso – Shell (Ferrari engines)
Williams – Petrobras
BMW – Petronas
Honda – Eneos

By: KB

KB — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:01:49 +0000

Excellent insight…..but question for you….might be a silly one….who provides every other teams fuel?

By: f1freak

f1freak — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:45:28 +0000

really good post keith

By: verasaki

verasaki — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:41:09 +0000

i wonder-does the fia have anything to say about what can actually comprise the “1%”? i’m just guessing he’s talking about additives, so i wonder if the fia has come up with an approved list or anything like that.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:29:43 +0000

Noel & Joe – according to Ian they have to use fuel that is 99% the same to what is sold in forecourts. But, to use his exact words “there’s a lot you can do with that last 1%”. For example, the banning of traction control led them to change fuel formulae for this year to help give he engines more ‘driveability’, i.e., make them deliver their power more progressively.

By: joe

joe — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:40:38 +0000

That was very interesting, but as far as I am aware formula 1 cars have been required to run on “pump” (ordinary) petrol since the fallout caused by incidents at Imola in 1994.