Verstappen did not arrive on the starting grid for the Barcelona race until just before the pit lane closed, as his team waited for his car’s fuel temperature to rise to the minimum limit.
Formula 1’s fuel temperature cap is 10°C below ambient temperature as shown in the official FIA timing system two hours before the start of a race or one hour before a practice session free.
Teams track temperature to see how cold their fuel may be when they put it in the car two hours before the start, having calculated how much it will get hotter while in the car at a standstill and when the engine is started. to start the race procedures.
They must ensure that their fuel exceeds the limit when the cars leave the garage, as the FIA monitors this live through the standard fuel flow meter .
Until now, the temperature has been rounded to the nearest whole degree, with no decimals. For example, if the temperature was 34.2ºC, it is rounded to 34ºC. In Spain the ambient temperature for the race was a low 34ºC, so the teams expected the stipulated figure to be 34ºC and therefore the fuel would have to be around 24ºC when the cars left the pits.
However, on that occasion, the FIA set it at 35ºC, and the teams had to fight to reach the limit.
Red Bull and AlphaTauri were particularly hard hit, with Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly exiting their garages just seconds before the pitlane closed.
There was subsequently a debate between the teams and the FIA over the procedure, with some questioning whether 35C was the real figure at the time it was declared.
In a Friday update to his Monaco GP notes, race director Eduardo Freitas indicated that a more precise number will be used from now on, to avoid any confusion over rounding.
AlphaTauri AT03
Freitas wrote: “The official ambient temperature message, which is sent one hour before each practice session and two hours before the race, will now be displayed to one decimal place.”
The teams are also calling for a move to a larger margin in the procedure, which could mean ambient temperature being declared earlier, three hours from the start, for example, giving them more time to do their temperature calculations before put the fuel in the cars two hours before starting.
The fuel issue first arose this year when the Aston Martins failed to make it to the grid in Miami as the team had to ensure the fuel was warm.
Gasly has made it clear how stressful it was having to wait to be allowed out of the garage at the Spanish GP.
“At one point I was able to look at the clock, and I thought: ‘That would be great to go out’. We made it by about 20 seconds,” he reflected when asked by Motorsport.com about the experience.
“The thing is, we had a little laugh before the race about that [Aston Martin] fuel story that happened in Miami, and then we ended up in the same situation. I’m glad we were able to fix everything.”
“It’s a small thing, it doesn’t affect the race, but it’s something we can avoid, and give all the mechanics an easier time.”
