atanatizante wrote: ↑10 Jan 2023, 16:11
Vaexa wrote: ↑04 Jan 2023, 21:02
Venturiation wrote: ↑04 Jan 2023, 19:50
I have seen multiple reports saying this , but other ones saying fuel can still be changed, maybe once a year like the chassis?
https://i.imgur.com/TsHu6ya.png
Appendix 4 defines the exceptions for ''reliability''. Beyond those exceptions, no changes in the listed components until 2026 (when the new PU regs go live, obviously).
Where did you get those rules?
Let me quote some statements from some top FIA officials posted to Formula 1 official site:
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... lwPam.html
Quotes:
"
The fuel revolution has already begun, with F1’s new generation of cars running on ‘E10’ fuel – a blend of 90% fuel and 10% renewable ethanol – this year. “The 10% of ethanol that we’re putting in now is entirely sustainable,” says Symonds.
“There are lots of different types of ethanol, which vary in quality, but this is a true green ethanol – so fully sustainable.”"
...
"The fuel that F1 will run-in just over three years’ time will be unique and lab-created. “E fuels offer such a wonderful opportunity,”
says Ross Brawn – F1’s Managing Director, Motorsports."
...
"
Shifting from 10% renewable fuel in 2022 to 100% in just a few years is ambitious, as it requires increasing production of the product rapidly. But Symonds says F1 are on target."
Therefore I truly believe what that Italian journalist said regarding the new biofuel and the proof is both the above article but mostly based on those optimistic statements Hywel was saying regarding 2023 PU gains in their YT channel when they were reviewing the F1 2022 season...
Not to mention that based on my professional background I`m fully aware of the fuel importance and particularly in biofuel`s case when last year was rumoured that Petronas provided a less powerful fuel (I refer to that normal/common fuel which represents 90% of the total amount, apart from those 10 % biofuels). And the main reason behind that was that Exxon-Mobile received a little help from Oracle`s A.I. programs just to verify those tenths of millions of fuel formulas which needed to be tested in order to reach the best one regarding peak power output vs consumption. That`s why Marko said that Honda didn`t lose power in 2022 compared to the previous season, something that Merc PU guys (even Hywel if I`m not wrong) saying the opposite ...
And finally, I think that also engine oil could be yearly updated due to also fuel changes, which could also give them some gains, bearing in mind that the engine oil has at least 5 functions: lubrication, cleaning, corrosion prevention, improve sealing and last but not least for cooling the engine, the latter could bringing the biggest gains in my opinion for allowing them to both run the engine harder and also for increasing thermal/cooling engine/car efficiency...
There are many misconceptions about renewable fuels. In my eyes, the term used by the EU official documents- renewable fuels- is the best one to use.
- You can make bioethanol, a bio-fuel, by utilizing energy crops.
- You can make renewable ethanol by using renewable hydrogen and biogenic CO2 (CO2 captured during biomass processes) or using CO2 directly captured from the air. Renewable hydrogen in most cases is considered to be produced using solar and/or wind energy along with water. This is considered an e-fuel. In many real world cases since direct air capture CO2 is not yet commercial and the value chains for biogenic CO2 are not advanced, CO2 captured from the use of fossil fuels (e.g., in steel industry) can be used for producing the synthetic fuel. In reality this approach enhances the overall resource efficiency, but it is NOT renewable.
Both the e-fuel and the biofuel are renewable.
Since we are transitioning to a new era beyond fossil fuels, many misconceptions still occur.
Let me put forward another dimension. Bio-ethanol many times contains traces of other chemicals due to the process followed to produce it and the used biomass stock. Anyone who wants further insights in this can read the following scientific publication. I am not getting into more details here.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.0c02360
You can easily see that many of the compounds presented in the article above are not part of the table included in Section 16.4 Composition of the fuel of the FIA regulation.
Synthetic ethanol can be pure ethanol with no traces of anything else. In F1, where all are trying to achieve any type of improvement even marginal, the exchange of bio-ethanol in the fuel to synthetic ethanol could provide benefits - there could even be a vice-versa scenario, which I consider very hard to exist.
Imagine finally if Petronas used bio-ethanol in their fuel last year and this year exchanged the bio-ethanol with a same spec synthetic ethanol. The tests according to the rule set would provide the same results as last year's fuel, but the new fuel could extract more power from the engine.
So nothing is black and white in F1. A freeze in a regulation can still provide windows of development fully in line with both the spirit and content of the regulation as I just showcased above for the fuel.