What oil for Formula 1 cars?

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Watching the Austrailian Gran Prix now. These 2.4L engines live at 17,000-19,000rpm. Simply amazing!

What oil, and what oil weight would be used such a severe environment?

(If anyone says "SuperTech", I'll doink you on the noggin! LOL)
 
That is a great question. I swore I saw Mobil 1 bottles in the McLaren garage a couple years back. Could have been placed for show, however.

I'm going to be a big fan of Hamilton. Did you see his move at the start?
 
No, I tuned in late. It was nice to see a F1 race. Nothing against NASCAR, but I dig the insanity of speed and handling F1 brings to the table.
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And the winner...his first F1 race! He got pole and the checkered flag! WOW!
 
McClaren:

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The MP4-21 chassis is made of moulded carbon fibre/aluminium honeycomb composite with a Mercedes FO 108S, a 2.4 litre capacity V8 engine delivering in excess of 19,000 rpm and 700 brake horsepower. The team uses Michelin tyres on Enkei race wheels..

Mobil fully synthetic lubricants and fuel are important "components" of
the MP4-21 car :
- Mobil 1 in the engine
- Mobilube 1 SHC in the gearboxes and final drives
- Mobilith SHC 220 in the wheel bearings
- Mobil Unleaded Race Fuel




 
I watched that race and I don't have a clue what special oils they run, but I think I saw some of the worst paint schemes that I've ever seen. I thought the McClarens and Hondas were just plain ugly. I realize everything has to do with down force and aerodynamics, but all of those extra little wings look wierd.

Hamilton looks like he will be a breath of fresh air to the sport. Well spoken and appears to be one heck of a driver. Felt kind of sorry for Renault. Two championships now nothing.
 
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McClaren:

Quote:


The MP4-21 chassis is made of moulded carbon fibre/aluminium honeycomb composite with a Mercedes FO 108S, a 2.4 litre capacity V8 engine delivering in excess of 19,000 rpm and 700 brake horsepower. The team uses Michelin tyres on Enkei race wheels..

Mobil fully synthetic lubricants and fuel are important "components" of
the MP4-21 car :
- Mobil 1 in the engine
- Mobilube 1 SHC in the gearboxes and final drives
- Mobilith SHC 220 in the wheel bearings
- Mobil Unleaded Race Fuel









I always heard that Elf supplied a spec/control race fuel for the series, or am I confusing F1 for WRC??
 
ferrari runs shell helix, and no, you cant buy it.

honda runs eneos, which you can buy a very similiar blend to what honda is running, its their 0w50. they actually run a 0w70 in the ra107 chassis, but they ran the 0w50 in the ra106 chassis.

mcclaren runs mobil synthetic, another oil you can not purchase because they dont sell to consumers because you couldnt afford it.

formula 1 cars dont actually use oil, they use only group V lubricants in the engine.
 
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ormula 1 cars dont actually use oil, they use only group V lubricants in the engine.




Thats not true. Elf's F1 oil is 85% PAO. They will tell you this. It's also in their product literature.
 
I doubt there's any accurate public info on the actual makeup of the oils they run. I'd bet there are some closely guarded formulas. I think they all run Elf fuels, though.

I believe F1 used to allow teams to concoct their own fuels. Any long-time F1 fans here that could shed some light on the fuels?
 
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I doubt there's any accurate public info on the actual makeup of the oils they run. I'd bet there are some closely guarded formulas. I think they all run Elf fuels, though.

I believe F1 used to allow teams to concoct their own fuels. Any long-time F1 fans here that could shed some light on the fuels?




actually no, i am positive about this. ferrari runs a 100%pao shell helix; honda runs eneos 0w70 100%pao that runs $115/quart if you are a supported team/sponsored. and mobil runs pure sythetic in their engines. you have to realise that the engine runs its most effecient at 215d, and it needs very stable lubricant that actually improves under high load/rpm's. with their high revvin v8's they are fightin to retain mechanical effeciency.

and no, each team has their own chemical engineer that blends the fuel, with ingredients that are found in pump gas, according to each race and forcasted weather conditions.

thank you. i actually watch the races at a local english tavern with a former aero engineer for benetton (micheal's era). he worked for jaguar til they disbanded.
 
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And the winner...his first F1 race! He got pole and the checkered flag! WOW!




ahh, Kimi's first race for Ferrari, he's been racing for McLaren and won a few F1 races over the previous seasons.
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and FWIW, they use some pretty exotic wheel bearing greases, etc thanks to the heat generated by the carbon/carbon brakes. Neo, for one, used to supply a few teams regardless of sponsorship with wheel bearing grease.

As to the oil, there was an article in either Racecar Engineering or Racetech a few years back on Shell and Ferrari's relationship and at the time they modified the brew day by day depending on whether qualifying or race (no minimum limit on engine milage then), UOA's and spectrometer work at the track. Then it was a blend of GIII, GIV.
 
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Shell makes Ferrari's fuel unless that changed this year. But it has to be within 99% of the Pump Gas sample at the beginning of the year. That being said they still modify streams of the fuel for lighter or heavier fuel depending on milage and power concerns. Very close to premium pump gas but very very trick at the same time.

The only F1 car I did not like this year is the Honda ECO thing. Dumb. McClaren looked like a McClaren.
 
While you may be able to buy an oil from the same base stock, you will not be able to buy an oil with the F1 additive package.

While the fuel in F1 must conform to the rules and expecially the octane rating, the actual fuel is a special blend. It has been said that if you put real pump gasoline in an F1 car, that A) the engine would run just fine, B) you would loose 50 HP. There is a lot more to energy content in the gasoline and there are hundreds of way to make a high energy density fuel that pings at the correct point in the octane test engines.
 
Re: Fuels, the F1 technical regs are very specific and samples are collected for analysis at every race and compared to the approved reference sample submitted to the FIA before the season's start. Also, the FIA can collect a sample "at any time during the event." This was done to avoid the fuel "cocktails" common in the turbo era.
 
if you look at a viscosity chart and how they thin out, oils with linear viscosity and a high W number would have low HTHS ratings, but oils that barely thin at all, like a 0W70, would have massive HTHS ratings (6+).

thats all just hearsay of course, as it seems to be a valid conclusion, but with no proof.
 
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