The four engine manufacturers in Formula 1 have worked very hard to develop new fuels with their suppliers since the new rule was announced that will make it mandatory to use sustainable fuels.
Meanwhile, they have been optimizing the power units to work better with the new fuel, and combustion has been one of the main areas of focus.
The switch to E10 fuel was one of the key reasons Red Bull fought to maintain its relationship with Honda this past winter. However, at Mercedes they will continue to supply engines, in addition to their own team, to McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams.
“Like every year when we develop this, it’s a partnership between us and Petronas to make sure the fuel is safe in the power unit, and that it’s enjoying its new power,” HPP CEO Hywel Thomas said in a statement. a team video.
“This season’s modification to introduce E10 may be the biggest challenge we have faced since the 2014 rule change,” he said. “So it was a pretty big deal to develop that fuel, and with the single-cylinder V6s we run, you shouldn’t underestimate the amount of time it took to do that.”
Thomas underlined that the importance of changing the rules does not only affect the increase in the biological content of the fuel, but also the proportion of sustainable ethanol.
“Throughout the hybrid era we have had biological components in gasoline. What we had was a requirement of 5.75% by volume of materials of this type,” he said.
“The change this season is that the percentage has risen to 10% and, furthermore, instead of using biological materials, ethanol has had to be used,” said the HPP member. “The move to this makes the engine react slightly differently to the fuel, so in some ways we’re very, very happy, but now in some ways we’re not.”
“What we need to do is modify the fuel where we can, and change the hardware of the power unit to maximize the effects of the things we like and minimize the ones we suffer the most.”
