Fuel and oil development have long been crucial to Grand Prix engine performance. Lubricant is a hidden performance factor helping attain higher engine efficiency; fuel is historically more evident in its role. In 1993, a poll of Formula One insiders conducted by the RET editor suggested that the fuel developed for the prevailing naturally aspirated 3.5 litre engines was worth anything from 2.5% to 7% to top-end power (according to the engine in question).
That was fuel conforming to the FIA’s existing definition of pump petrol but far removed from anything sold at the roadside. However, soon afterwards the regulations were tightened, and since 1996 Formula One fuel has had to be unleaded and to conform with European standards for petrol sold to regular motorists. There have still been gains to be had but far less spectacular than seen in the early 1990s and before.
Fuel development has continued to go hand in hand with engine development, and engine upgrades have often been accompanied by a revised fuel blend. But that has changed of late, since suppliers now have to homologate one blend for the season. Next year the engines are due to be frozen until at least 2025, and with that the fuel developed for 2022 is scheduled to be homologated for use through at least three seasons.
On top of that, while the current regulations state that fuel must include 5.75% bio-components, echoing European rules for roadcar fuel, as of 2022 it must contain 10% ethanol. That is a new challenge for the suppliers, who will have a further major challenge when new-generation engines are introduced in 2025 or ’26. The current plan is for those to use a 100% sustainable fuel, one that can be used without the need for any architectural modifications to existing IC engines.
As described in our Focus on Sustainable Fuels in RET 133 (August 2021), sustainable fuel can be biofuel or e-fuel. Biofuel produced from crops is known as first generation. There are ethical arguments against growing crops for fuel though, and second-generation biofuels are made from bio-waste.
E-fuels are synthetic fuels based on the extraction of hydrogen in processes that require electrical power. That power can be supplied by renewable sources such as wind and solar.
In imposing sustainable fuel the FIA is hoping to obtain a greenhouse gas emission reduction of at least two-thirds compared with fossil fuel. Discussion is ongoing as to the characteristics of a sustainable fuel that will be used by next-generation Formula One power units. What is clear is that this is a time of significant change within Formula One fuel technology. With that in mind, RET spoke to Valeria Loreti, motorsport delivery manager at Shell.
VALERIA LORETI
Valeria Loreti has a background in chemistry, receiving a degree from the University of Pisa, Italy, the country where she was born and grew up. She then completed a PhD at the University of Mainz, in Germany, where she currently lives.
Loreti has worked for Shell since starting in the Shell Technology Centre Hamburg as a fuels scientist in 2005. She spent over 10 years in fuels technology, “mainly in developing premium fuels and deploying differentiated fuels across the globe, with particular focus on providing technical support to the business by explaining the technical insight of Shell's special formulations to media, customers and partners”.
Since April 2020, Loreti has been Shell’s delivery manager for motorsport, leading a team that designs racing fuels and lubricants and associated fluids for various series, including acting as an innovation partner for Scuderia Ferrari’s Formula One programme.
Shell and Ferrari in 2021 and 2022
Loreti explains that Shell supports Ferrari, “providing all sorts of fluids that are going into their power units. The pinnacle products we do a lot of research on and strive to optimise for every new opportunity of regulation change are the Shell V-power fuel and Shell Helix Ultra lubricants for the engine.
“We also have gearbox lubricants – Shell Spirax – we have ERS fluid – Shell Diala – hydraulic fluids – Shell Tellus – and greases - Shell Gadus - as well. It is a very holistic opportunity for us to unlock performance.
“I see all these products as technology platforms. The investment Shell makes in motorsport r&d is to try to understand what could be improved, especially for the Ferrari powertrain, but also to take all the learnings we get out of that and use that for our motorists.”
Loreti notes that Shell has long been “the ‘innovation partner’ of Ferrari, the reason being that we work hand in hand with the engineers in Maranello. The goal is to develop the most powerful, the most efficient fuel for their power unit. We do this by co-engineering the fuel and power unit.
“We are collaborating on a daily basis with Ferrari, but we are also interfacing with scientists and fuels and oil developers that look into our daily application products. There is a constant exchange, and that’s the value of our innovation partnership for us.
“We have more than 50 technical staff dedicated to developing these [racing] fuels, oils and all the other fluids. We have fuels experts, lubes experts, grease experts, and we’ve also worked in cooperation with our wider team to leverage university collaborations, academia and forums, which can keep alive our innovation spirit and push us in the direction of discovering something new.
“We have at least two trackside analysts present at every Grand Prix to support the three current Ferrari-powered teams (Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas). They provide analysis and technical support to ensure [regulatory] compliance and monitor the quality of our products, which is fundamental to discovering early warnings of power unit issues.”
We asked: what are the main characteristics of your Formula One fuel this season? “We have a very similar fuel to what we have had in the recent past,” Loreti replies. “Our optimisation work is always around efficiency and performance. What the fuel needs to do is not only to power the engine, but also make sure the driver arrives at the end of the race within our fuel supply.
“Considering the components of today’s fuel, we have 99% the same as in the Shell V-power you can buy at a retail station. That is really important, because our commitment is around leveraging the research for our customers all over the world. If you look back to the 1980s, when racing fuels were more like rocket fuels, Formula One has done an amazing step in the direction of leveraging track-to-road knowledge.”
But there is still today more emphasis on anti-knock in Formula One fuel compared to road fuel? “That depends. Even though we have 99% of the same components, we are designing fuel to meet the exact requirements of the Ferrari Formula One power unit. It is like buying a dress in a big retail store compared to going to a tailor and asking them to make a dress that fits your body exactly!”
What are the main characteristics of today’s Formula One lubricants? “There is a maximum number of power units for the season before they run into penalties, so the key weapon to protect the engine and ensure its longevity is to have a very high performing lubricant. One that obviously needs to lubricate but also needs to cool the engine; that’s an extremely important factor. And then, when we can change the formulation to optimise it for more efficiency and more performance, that’s obviously a bonus.”
Looking ahead to 2022, Loreti remarks, “The fuel regulations are almost doubling the bio-content, and for the first time prescribe the use of ethanol. We have E10 in many countries already in use, and this blending component has a lot of very good and attractive properties. It has a great octane number and a very good effect on charge cooling, so it will deliver a lot of efficiency and it has a great flame speed, which is an important parameter for formulating racing fuels.
“But it carries oxygen and therefore has inherently less energy on a volumetric weight basis, so we need to balance the formulation. And the current situation is that there will be an engine freeze from 2022 until 2025, including the fuel and the engine oil.”
The next generation
We put it to Loreti that Formula One seems to be at a crucial juncture insofar as it has the potential to help protect the future of the IC engine by demonstrating that there are viable, eco-friendly alternatives to electrification. But what does she expect the first 100% sustainable fuel for the next generation power units to be?
“That is work in progress together with the FIA,” she says. “We still have a couple of years to sort out the best possible solution. I can already tell you though that there will not be a silver bullet. There will not be one single source of fuel – biofuels, synthetic fuels or whatever it is going to be to substitute fossil fuels.
“Formula One fuels are aimed at maximum performance, maximum efficiency. To make that happen based on sustainable bio feedstock will take exploiting all the potential sources we can think of. It's probably going to be a mosaic of solutions. I can imagine that this will leverage all the sources that we have now and potentially, since we have a couple of years to think about it, even new options.
“We are already working in a number of markets with ethanol. We have a lot of experience in terms of manufacturing and refining that can be used to understand how alternative feedstocks can be then processed for providing the molecules, streams and components you will need to achieve the best blend possible.
“And we can use Formula One as a pioneering platform to push the boundaries [beyond] the conventional solutions available today for motorists.”
If Shell could ‘steer’ the regulations for a new sustainable fuel, how would you advise the FIA, and for what reasons?
“For the time being, I would not advocate any specific thing. I think the work we’re doing with the FIA is actually to look into all the options and then select those that make the most sense. I think it is important to consider the different options we have available in the context of the whole process [of producing them].
“It’s important that we don’t just focus on the feedstock and then on the outputs. The process, how the biofuels or e-fuels are produced, is important. Considering the whole process on a holistic level is important.
“It’s important to understand the greenhouse gas impact, depending on what will be available – green electricity, green hydrogen – to power those processes. What kind of impact will help us understand the most sustainable scenario that we should follow to decarbonise Formula One.”
For fuels produced from recovering CO2 from atmosphere or from industry, is there a hierarchy of fuel based on energy input versus output energy – that is, for a unit measure of lower heating value, what are the relative amounts of energy required to produce that output energy?
“That is a very complex question. I think it’s probably too early to establish a hierarchy. At Shell, our philosophy is that synthetic fuels have the potential to decarbonise those sectors where abatement of CO2 emissions is really hard.
“For passenger vehicles, I think battery electric with green electricity is the easiest step. For other sectors such as shipping, aviation or commercial road transport – all those where using a battery is actually a big hurdle – synthetic fuels are probably going to be the solution on a global scale.
“I think sustainable synthetic fuels coming out of green electricity and CO2 from the air offers great opportunities for those sectors that cannot use battery electric. In terms of Formula One, I think we should consider this as a true innovation platform where we can push the boundaries, go beyond the limitations that are normal in a global market, where you need to adapt to every kind of vehicle.
“Looking to 2025, that is really a great platform where engineers and chemists can work hand in hand. This is a great opportunity for us as innovation partner to work even more closely with Ferrari to really develop something completely new and also unlock opportunities for our customers.”
If or when there are large quantities of sustainable fuels being produced, how expensive do you expect them to be relative to refined fossil crude fuels?
“I would need a crystal ball to answer that. At the moment, anything that is different than fossil fuel is more expensive, but that may change at any time. We did have a time a couple of years ago where fossil fuels and biofuels were more or less of the same order of magnitude in terms of costs. It all depends on the supply and demand!”
Hydrogen
Le Mans plans to go with hydrogen, albeit to supply fuel cell-powered Prototypes that will be capable of challenging for the outright win. However, hydrogen can be used directly in an IC engine. Can Shell foresee a time when Formula One might use hydrogen as a combustion engine fuel?
“That is another crystal-ball question. In principle, we have a plan to keep focusing on hybrids with an IC engine and leverage the innovation around sustainable fuels. But I think motorsport in general could be a kind of mosaic-like platform to push innovation in every technology.
“If hydrogen is part of Formula One or any other race series, that’s definitely an opportunity to keep improving the technology, the same way we’re doing in Formula E for example. We have cooperation there with Nissan. And in that area, all the research is around the transmission fluids and e-motor fluids and anything that can be optimised for those powertrains.
“We have cooperation in other race series, for example with Hyundai in the World Rally Championship. There the major research area is around engine oils, to exploit them in the extreme conditions of a rally, to design an engine oil to produce maximum engine power and efficiency under those conditions.
“Obviously there is interest for such series to go in the direction of hybrid, maybe longer term on the hydrogen platform. That could give us an opportunity to explore complementary technology areas to those Formula One is currently planning.
“So I don’t know if Formula One is ever going to go hydrogen, but whatever they are going to do will be an opportunity for us to keep researching and pushing innovation boundaries.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Valeria Loreti, motorsport delivery manager at Shell, remarks that her company has a commitment to become a carbon-neutral business by 2050 or earlier. “Given that commitment we have to find the cleverest ways to decarbonise all sectors.
“In Formula One, greenhouse gas emissions linked to the fuel is less than 1% of the emissions created by the overall championship. So we are working with Ferrari and some race organisers to look at the bigger picture.
“We are already providing our partners with sustainable biofuel for their motorhome generators. This is formulated to save up to 50% of the CO2 emissions compared with the regular diesel they were using before. We worked with the organiser of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort to provide Shell GTL synthetic fuel to the overall event electricity generators.
“We have introduced a new Formula One trackside laboratory this year, which is lighter than the previous one so it produces less CO2 emissions linked to its logistics, including every overseas shipment. It is made partially of a sustainable vegetable fibre, and the floor is recycled plastic.
“Also, for the European Formula One races, we ship products blended in our Technology Centre in Hamburg by road. We are supplying partially sustainable diesel for those trucks, which is capable of saving up to 20% of CO2 emissions compared with regular diesel.
“It’s a small contribution, it is not going to change the overall emissions in the Formula One Championship, but it is already a tangible step in the right direction. And I think it’s just the start. It should trigger ideas. This is a conversation around how to decarbonise every bit of the mosaic.”
