Fuelled for race track success

Sometimes it takes more than personal skill or state-of-art technology to reserve a spot on a Formula1 podium. Quality fuel, efficient pit crews and even Lady Luck can be what makes the difference.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is well aware of those factors, and never more so than at the recent running of Singapore’s unique night race at the Marina Bay street circuit. Starting from fifth on the grid, Alonso was unable to better his position until the hot-shot Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who dominated two of the three previous grands prix, blew his lead due to a gearbox failure on the 19th lap, which saw him retire from the race. With a technical problem also causing the premature exit of Williams’s Pastor Maldonado on the 36th lap, Alonso moved into third and clung onto his podium place till the end.

Thanks to Hamilton’s failure to gain any points in Singapore, where Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took first, Alonso is now in pole position for another overall title to go with his back-to-back victories in 2005-06. With six races remaining, he is leading second-placed Vettel 194 points to 165 and if nothing goes wrong, should make it a world championship hat-trick.

“It’s up to us to improve a little bit on pace and see what we can do. There are five or six contenders for the championship, and six races to go. It will be tight until the last race. But I’m probably the one who cannot afford even one mistake,’’ said the winner of three grands prix so far this year, speaking in a recent special interview in Singapore held by Shell and Ferrari to mark the oil company’s over 60 years of partnership with the F1 team. 

Along with Ferrari’s hi-tech engine, Shell has played a key role in propelling Alonso to the top of the podium three times this season. Contributing its technical expertise, the company has developed cutting-edge formulas for fuel as well as other oil products for Ferrari to use in Formula 1.

The Shell technical partnership with Ferrari has so far produced 12 F1 driver’s crowns and 10 constructors’ championship titles. Those returns came only after the company’s investment of 21,5000 man-hours and around US$1 billion per year to develop performance fuels.

“Our lab equipment and staff will arrive five days ahead of the competition. They will always test fuel and lubricant samples before and after driving to make sure that oil and lubricants are relevant to FIA standards and at the same time analyse a solution which is best for the drivers under specific circumstance,” said Ruengsak Sritanawiboonchai, Shell Special Project manager and Retail Marketing Delivery manager for Thailand.

Since 1997, Ferrari has been fuelled with Shell-V Power, which was adjusted for road users and introduced for the first time in Hong Kong a year later. V-Power Nitro Plus, the latest of the V-Power family, was launched in Thailand and three other countries, the Philippines, Norway and Argentina. The premium gasoline was designed to improve engine performance.

“It contains a special formula detergent which helps prevent and clean up deposits. There is also a higher level of Friction Modifier technology that reduces friction in critical engine areas. With no deposits and less friction, it helps engine to work better and deliver more power to the wheels,” explained Ratchatapong Boonwatsakul, Shell Fuel Scientist.

Seeking to prove that the V-Power track fuel formulation is 99 per cent identical to road fuel, Alonso himself conducted a test in his 2009 F1 Ferrari car. First he drove the car with the track fuel. After four laps he clocked a fastest lap of one minute, 3.95 seconds. Then he repeated the four laps with the regular V-Power fuel from a Shell station, clocking a fastest lap of one minute, 4.85 seconds. That the results were roughly within a second of each other per lap is a testimony to how close these fuels are.

“Surprisingly, the normal fuel that we can find every day, the blue line, has more top speed at the end of the straight, so it [produces] more power at the top end,” Alonso explained, using graphics of both results.

“And then from what we saw and what I also felt in the car, all the accelerations, the standard fuel is a little bit slower accelerating but something we can re-map … the top speed we see with the standard V-Power is as quick as the standard F1 fuel, so I was surprised at what we saw on telemetry.

“It’s very exciting to stop in the filling station and be refuelling with the same kind of fuel the Ferrari [F1] cars are using,’’ said Alonso, whose Ferrari team and Shell celebrated their 500th Formula 1 race at the Singapore meet last week.

“Driving for Ferrari is probably more important than any race team or successes you have, because you are driving for the best team. People will remember you that you were driving for Ferrari,’’ the Spaniard said.