wowf1 wrote:Yes i'd say its very possible to alter the mass of the volume of fuel. Just as an external example: I was reading a book concerning forced induction and fuelling, and the difference between the lightest and heaviest fuels was about 5kg per the same volume!!! Obviously in F1 all the fuels are very similar so there won't be anywhere near that mass difference, but maybe the difference is enough when you have 100 or so litres (do they carry more than that?)
Secondly, I was reading, in Racecar Engineering i think, that all fuel and oil companies begin with a basic fuel/oil baseline composition, and then simply purchase additives that are commercially available!!! I have to say this annoyed me slightly because i love solutions that come from the ground up, and integrate into a wholly superior product. But i read that even in F1 they all use the same process of adding, for example de-foaming agents, lubricity agents and other additives.
It just seems like an 'easy way out'!! I'm not pretending its easy, but surely the facts i have read would enable anyone to mix the correct compounds and end up with F1 fuel
rob
Dear Wow,
If you see the FIA technical regulations for F1 (
http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/ ... _Reg_a.pdf)
you will see that the fuel density is between 720 and 775 kg/m3 @ 15°C.
Supposing Ferrari was using a fuel with maximum density and now has reduced to the minimum it means 55kg in 1.000 liters of fuel.
As the cars are going to qualifying with an average of 50 liters of fuel the maximum weight reduction that can be achieved is 2.75kg. This weight, for an average track, means a maximum of 0.08s in the lap times (from higher to lower density).
It looks to be more "noise" and less real technology !
Regarding the fuel development for F1 I prefer to believe they are realy developing special fuels. With the engines running at 19,000rpm (~320revs/sec) it means the engines have 160 combustions in 1 second interval. It is amazing! I can't believe that a pump petrol, designed to engines running at 7,000rpm maximum, can burn 3 times quicker!!!. Thus, it is written in the regulations that only components and additives used in pump fuel can be used in the F1 Petrol. See below parts of the article 19...
"19.1.2 The detailed requirements of this Article are intended to ensure the use of fuels that are composed of
compounds normally found in commercial fuels and to prohibit the use of specific power-boosting chemical
compounds. Acceptable compounds and compound classes are defined in 19.2 and 19.4.4. In addition, to
cover the presence of low level impurities, the sum of components lying outside the 19.2 and 19.4.4
definitions are limited to 1% max m/m of the total fuel.
19.1.3 Any petrol, which appears to have been formulated in order to subvert the purpose of this regulation, will be
deemed to be outside it."
It was reported that Ferrari had some private information from Shell regarding the Tarmak applied in the track of Bahrain.
