F1 oil

Ive heard conflicting stories as well, but one telling one is an article about a year ago in Cavallino regarding the Ferrari Clienti program where wealthy dudes and dudettes can buy rides in previous years F1 cars. In the article it stated that MS car and others being used that day were hooked up to a auxillary oil heating unit and the cars oil was heated and circulated before starting as the oil was to thick. That was only a year ago, and I believe they are still running high vis oil.

But from a Shell website:

"Secrecy and technology go hand-in-hand in F1. Shell and Ferrari decline to reveal certain facts such as how much oil the car carries, oil viscosity or fuel mileage, never mind more specific technical information".

 

But even 70 weight oil can be thin at higher temps.

 

I believe that its next year they are talking of going to a three race per engine rule, and possibly four races per gearbox. Oil is going to play a very important part in extending engine life. Ive tried doing searches several times and I come up with nothing but Amzoil, Red Line, Mobil1, and Royal Purple websites one after the other. Mums the word I guess.

 

ok I'll agree that oil is still important...but I think it was Rifledriver who pointed out in an oil thread that you rarely see oiled parts failing due to frictional issues. Most engine failures are stress-fatigue issues or something similar, not so much from cam lobes wearing out. Oil does contribute to stress fatigue failures when you consider it reduces frictional heat, and heat reduces fatigue life of metals. I think F1 actually has a good oiling situation compared to street cars because it's predictable - they know just how hot those things run, and it's fairly constant as compared to us fools running engines in a wide range of temps.

 

If you are ever involved with a race car that is sponsored by an oil company you will recieve bottles that look just like the ones at Pep Boys but you are told not to pay much attention to the label because that is not what is in it.

What is?

You are never told.

 

While details are secret, is it safe to assume the pre-heating implies a high viscosity oil? I mean, just driving my car, a 1.6L engine with 20W50, my oil pressure is almost pegged at the 65 psi limit when the car is cold and oil is new, and when warmed up fluxuates normally with engine revs. If I was running 18k revs, I'd want a a high viscosity oil but it better be preheated or something's gonna blow up!

Ken

 

Yes. Because while the POA basestock might be similar to what you can get over the counter, the number of ester bases number in the thousands of which only a much smaller number apply to IC engines and some of those can be expensive. The additive package in race oil, or lack thereof is completely inappropriate on regular street driven cars.

The answer to the question "what's in formula 1 oil?" is most likely only known to the oil company's reseach chemists and the engine and transmission designers/engineers.

 

A Shell technician advised me that the base stock used in the Ferrari formula 1 engines is a group III base stock called, group HXIV or something to that effect. He further said that each track uses a different additive package due to different kinds of stresses at each track, but the same hydrocracked group III base stock is used. What got me was that he said the same base stock is used for Shell's Helix Ultra, and Rotella T synthetic which is available in the states.

 

It's possible, but relatively may not be too high compared to road cars.
However, their motors are completely different. I recall from an engineering article mentioning that due to the tolerances of F1 engines, the oil needs to be pre-heated to get through some of the passages at startup.

 

Ya know, some of us may have our differences, but ya'll gotta admit this racing stuff is pretty incredible. 750 HP out of a 2.4 liter pegged at 19,000 RPM is just amazing. I thought it was amazing as a kid to know that a Cox .049 engine could get near 20K RPM, but a car engine?

And no matter if they are running 0W or 70W oil, the fact they can hang together like they do is almost more amazing.

 

It's a group III basestock but Shell's XHVI is a little different from other company's group III's. All the group III's are hydroprocessed and isomerized. Shell XHVI uses only the slackwax portion removed during solvent dewaxing of the crude then it goes through isomerization and hydroprocessing. It is supposed to rival PAOs in almost every performance category. http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7067049-description.html

They also supposedly tailor the viscosities to the track too.

 

Different visocities for different tracks is precisely what I heard, or rather, it was suggested.

I agree, Shell's group III is very different from anyone else's group III. I highly recommend Shell's Rotella T synthetic 5w-40 in any car with flat tappets. It's higher copper content and highly original base stock makes for a very beefy oil. If it is good enough for F1, it is good enough for me. It made my 911 track oil consumption go down by about half. Too soon for me to venture an opinion since using it in my 308 though.

 

Not copper according to this http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=474179&an=0&page=0#Post474179

But does have a lot of calcium, zinc and phosphorus.

 

My bad, I meant zinc. Been a while since I have really talked about this oil. I just use it.

 

After reading that chart it must be calcium that does it. All kinds of information being spouted on oil sites. Great factual chart though.