Why fuel is so important in 2010 (Video)
The video above supplied by Shell and Ferrari does a good job of explaining the extra importance fuel technology will play in 2010.
The ban on refuelling means the teams now have to carry an entire load of fuel with them for a race. Fuel companies like Shell can help F1 teams get a performance advantage by producing fuel which is used more efficiently, meaning the cars can carry less of it, saving weight.
Some of the other implications of the refuelling ban are less obvious. As the video explains, keeping fuel temperature under control is especially important. Last year when cars took on fuel at pit stops it would be at a lower temperature than the fuel already in the car, helping to keep temperatures down.
This year the teams won’t have that benefit, and the fuel suppliers have had to compensate by changing the formula that goes into the tanks.
See the video for more – it features interviews with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa and is narrated by James Allen.
NB. I have uploaded the video at higher quality than usual – please let me know if you experience playback problems.
Mark Hitchcock said on 6th March 2010, 14:53
My computer/connection can barely handle Youtube sometimes. So needless to say that trying to play this video slowed everything down to a halt (in fact, Firefox decided it didn’t want to respond any more).
Thanks for uploading in high quality though Keith, when it’s something a bit more visually interesting I’ll probably risk trying to watch it!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 6th March 2010, 15:01
Think it’s fair to say the consensus is the quality is good but the playback is slow. Will try a different quality level next time. Thanks for the feedback everyone.
jbstans said on 6th March 2010, 18:00
I’m sure you know but for some reason your videos don’t work in Chrome. I just get a nice empty bit of space where the video player should be. Have to open up IE, which is total bumgas!
Otherwise groovy vid! I don’t mind having to wait for it to fully load before watching it, but it’s definitely too big to stream smoothly.
mtss said on 6th March 2010, 18:18
Never had that problem in Chrome. Maybe you need flash plugin.
jbstans said on 6th March 2010, 21:27
I don’t have problems on any other website. I definitely have flash because youtube, iplayer etc. work with no issues at all.
Pat said on 6th March 2010, 23:09
I use Chrome – “the canine testicle of a browser” knocks the socks off IE/Safari & Firefox and the video works fine – would suggest you re-install the Flash for Chrome Plug-in
BBT said on 6th March 2010, 19:43
On a 10MB connection it only stopped to buffer once at 51% for a few seconds. Great Quality and more than viewable on my connection. Thanks.
Nice Shell advert. lol.
Yeah, the 2nd half was more informative, well 60% – 80% the rest was marketing bollox.
Who supplies the fuel for Red Bull and Mclaren? I’m going to have to look it up now.
Lotus 49 said on 6th March 2010, 20:15
Unfortunately, I live in rural England. So my internet connection is just toooooooooooooo slow to run the clip :(
rabbit said on 7th March 2010, 7:12
******* these are for the 2009 season *******
Castrol – Toro Rosso
Elf – Renault
Esso – Toyota
Mobil – McLaren
Petrobras – Williams
Petronas – BMW
Shell – Ferrari
JV said on 7th March 2010, 9:27
Keith quality of the video is great but while watching it video is falling behind the sound.
SiY said on 7th March 2010, 12:51
Very good quality. Loaded in a couple of mins; my netbook struggled slightly with it though (with no other tabs or programs open). Maybe a YouTube/Vimeo type option to switch between different resolutions is in order.
John H said on 7th March 2010, 17:44
As some of us have bandwidth limits, a little less quality for this type of video would still be fine!
Thanks for uploading though. 20% of the total weight at the startline just in fuel is immense!
VXR said on 7th March 2010, 18:45
What’s this!? Ferrari are using ‘lighter’ fuel?
Fuel economy was never their greatest strength, unless you think that a 612 Scaglietti’s 13 mpg official figure is quite good. Heaven only knows what it does when you actually apply some pressure to the gas pedal.
It will be interesting to know just how much fuel each team has to put in their cars fuel tanks at the beginning of each race. I believe that the FIA are not going to disclose the actual figures.
Mike-e said on 9th March 2010, 2:37
the only problems i had with the video were it took longer to buffer, and it just stopped before the end. i scrolled forwards on the locator bar to where it stopped and it was ok…. good video tho keith, good find.
Chaz said on 12th March 2010, 20:16
Thanks Shell…
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