Shell Ferrari partners in time

Shaving tenths or hundredths of a second from a lap can make all the difference in where an F1 team places. As well as many hours of driver practice, the Formula One car itself must be fighting fit -- of the highest possible technical standard.

To achieve this, Shell and Ferrari engineers spend not only countless hours on engine development, aerodynamics and chassis set-up, but also on the vital fluids coursing through the intricate innards of an F1 engine.

Visiting Monza for the Italian round of the 2012 Formula One Grand Prix, motoring.com.au spoke with Shell Formula One Project Manager Ian Albiston to discover a little more about the 60-year partnership between Shell and the Scuderia Ferrari team. And how the time invested in developing lubricants and fuels at the track pays dividends not only for the Scuderia Ferrari team, but for you and I as well.

“One of the key elements of Monza is power, [the] cars spend 76 per cent of the lap at full throttle,” explained Mr Albiston. “Knowing this, Shell’s R&D engineers -- roughly 55 of them -- can formulate an oil that balances performance and protection. The job consumes 21,000 man hours a year, [with] the team working non-stop to achieve between two and three improvements to the [formula of the] oil throughout the season.”

Although that formula and viscosity are top secret, the level of analysis involved is worthy of some boasting. Behind the scenes, and at every stage of the race weekend, Shell scientists are tucked away in the mobile track lab -- which travels to all 19 countries and five continents of the Formula One season --  continually analysing the lubricants and fuels used in the cars.

“We are monitoring the condition of the engine through the analysis of the Shell Helix that goes into the Formula One car,” details Mr Albiston. “So, before the car goes out to each morning, my team takes a sample of oil from the engine.

“We have a piece of equipment within the track lab that will analyse, in about 30 seconds, how much of the individual metals are within the oil. There are no rules surrounding what we can do with oil. The oil rules are free. So we use the oil to actually monitor the engine.”

With more than 60 years cooperation, Shell and Ferrari have amassed a huge database of information pertaining to their fuels and lubricants. It’s this background and tireless work that help the pair find valuable fractions of seconds on the track, information that soon trickles down into Shell’s retail products.

The fluids are analysed for wear and fine particles of different metal types that tell the engineers if a certain part of the engine is wearing abnormally.

“We have a huge database of samples,” exclaims Mr Albiston. “So we know that at 50km, 100km or 150km exactly how much of each individual metal there should be within that engine that is normal, or abnormal. We can technically give the team a tenth of a second, maybe 12 yards on the track. And that’s the difference between pole and second, or pole and third. So you’re talking about minute numbers.

“In Formula One there’s a famous saying: ‘to stand still you go backwards’. That’s why we invest such a heavy amount of time into our R&D program with Ferrari,” said Mr Albiston. “All the knowledge we learn through our testing of the Formula One information goes back into the Shell Helix that you and I can buy. So we all benefit from what happens here at Monza.”

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…