Rundown: The Power and The Passion – A Ferrari Story
00:02 Formula One is becoming leaner and greener. Rules being introduced by 2013 will see fuel consumption per gallon halved in the following five years. As race engineers strive to produce maximum fuel efficiency from fewer and smaller engines 00:38
Measures are already in place to lower the sports carbon footprint by 13% by 2012. The key to delivery of the efficiencies required will be the relationships between the race teams and their technology partners.
This program looks at just one of them, the sport’s most enduring, as both partners come to terms with the changes introduced this season and the challenges they face together in the next.
01:13
When Formula Ones Teams revealed their new cars at the start of 2010 it was not without some trepidation. As well as introducing the new fuel specification the sport’s governing body (insert ‘the FIA’) had decreed that the cars could no longer be refuelled during races.
01:30
Fuel efficiency, weight, and volume became key considerations. Along with their rivals teams like Scuderia Ferrari were forced to redesign their car and chassis, and rethink their race strategy. Theirs was not the only reputation on the line. Long-term partner Shell would also have to revise its approach, to produce fuel and lubricant that delivered just as much power but even greater efficiency.
The drivers had their own concerns. What effect would enlarged fuel tanks and a longer wheel base have on the handling of their cars? With winter testing hours restricted and the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain fast approaching, they had just a few weeks to find out.
02:27
In anticipation of the new regulations, Formula One’s fuel formulators had begun their painstaking work several months previously. But before they could burn the midnight oil, they first had to find the right one.
02:40
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English “The art of fuel formulation gets the best power and the best efficiency. So we work very, very hard to understand all the chemical elements that go into a fuel to make sure we select the right one. So this is where we take a lot of different refinery streams from around the world and mix them together to make the fuel for the formula one car.”>>02:58
03:04
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English “We have to understand the way that the compounds react, how quickly they burn. The engine is doing 18,000 rpm so we’re looking for compounds that burn really quickly and give it the best in efficiency.”>>03:16
03:18
More than 200 individual components had to be modelled and analysed. But for 2010, power and efficiency were not the only considerations.
03:29
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English “Something that a lot people may not realize is that the fuel is actually going to get a lot hotter inside the car. Which normally when you refuel, 2 or 3 times during the race you are refuelling with cool fuel, so without that cooling effect, and obviously having such a large fuel tank sitting next to a very hot engine, the fuel itself is going to get hotter.”>>03:41
03:46
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English
“One of the ways to get around this is actually in the fuel formulation itself. We’re designing the fuel to be able to deal with these hotter temperatures and not to vaporize in the fuel tank, you can get vapour lock issues. One of the other problem is you can get air bubbles in the fuel. This can cause what’s called cavitation. And if you’ve got the most extreme circumstances, the fuelling system would be damaged beyond repair.”>>04:11
04:12
Then there were two further factors, the new fuel’s weight and volume.
04:17
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English “You’re talking 20% of the weight of the car at the start is made up of fuel so we’ve put a lot of effort into the fuels for this season to give them the best fuel efficiency on a weight basis. Conversely, if you’ve got a tank on a car that’s a bit small you want good fuel efficiency on a volume basis so we’re having to cover both angles.”>>04:35
04:36
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English “We had all these challenges, and I have to say, the initial reaction was probably: ‘oh god’!”>>04:42
04:48
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English “We’ve got the density down as low as we can, as I said to Alessandro before, the last one looks the best…”>>04:55
04:56
Mike Evans first batch of candidate fuels for the 2010 season are being tested in Maranello.
05:03
Original sound: Dave Salters, Scuderia Ferrari Head of Engine Development, English “You can see from our measurements that the fuel economy that’s predicted is exactly what we’re seeing so that should give us a good advantage.”>>05:11
05:12
The cooperation between team and technical partner is close and continuous, not least in 2010 year, when both are climbing a steep learning curve.
05:21
Original sound: Dave Salters, Scuderia Ferrari Head of Engine Development, English “The emphasis used to be on power, power, power, now fuel economy is coming into it and we’re all learning.”>>05:26
05:27
Original sound: Luca Marmorini Scuderia Engine & Electronics Director, English “When you develop a fuel and an oil, you cannot just take a good fuel, put it in an engine, and expect it to work. Engine and fuel, and lubricant have to be developed together.”>>05:37
05:38
After exhaustive modelling at Thornton, the most promising formulations are made up in small batches and tested for performance and reliability during long runs on static engines at Maranello. It’s a measured and methodical approach.
05:53
Original sound: Dave Salters, Scuderia Ferrari Head of Engine Development, English “You have to understand what you’re doing. Just throwing ideas is not good enough, we need to do the genuine research work to understand what happens in an engine working at ridiculously high loads of speeds. Thorton’s research environment is invaluable to us because we have a continuous development program of fuels and oils which needs bespoke resource and needs bespoke people and also needs to be very reactive because we need to keep an advantage over the competition.”>>06:22
06:23
Evans and his colleagues are regular visitors to Maranello where their every effort and each new development is rigorously scrutinized then fast tracked or side-lined. Their partners demand for improvement is incessant and infinite.
06:40
Original sound: Aldo Costa, Scuderia Ferrari Technical Director, English “Yeah, we normally apply a lot of pressure but they know us so they accept this pressure because they are part of the team, they are part of the game.”>>06:48
06:49
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English “Dave is the team leader. He’s English, he knows how to ring me up and challenge me and say I like this fuel or I want this fuel. He’s always pushing for development. Alessandro Rossetti is the combustion side of the engine, combustion efficiency. He gives you a really good insight into how the fuels are performing so a rewarding part of the job is coming over here and chatting with the guys”.>>07:11
07:15
Formulation and testing complete, the new fuel for the first four races in now subject to ratification by Formula One’s governing body, the FIA.
07:25
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English “When we design the fuel and we send it off for approval we clearly want to be as close to the limits as possible, so if we get one or two error messages telling us we’re right on the limit, that’s a good thing. You want the engine to last for 2500 kilometres and at 2501 kilometres you want it to fail because otherwise you’ve over engineered it and it’s the same with our fuel. we want it to come back telling us we’re right on the edge of the formulation space because otherwise we’ve not really exploited all the opportunities.”>>07:46
07:49
When approval is granted, production of the fuel finally begins in large quantities. One consignment will be dispatched to clear customs in time for the first Grand Prix of the season. While another is prepared for the more imminent challenge, Formula One testing in Spain.
08:11
At Jerez, car and fuel come together for one of the few remaining occasions before the Formula One championship begins, speed is still king, but the significance of fuel efficiency is not lost on the drivers.
08:27
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English “Let’s say your engine uses a bit less fuel than another engine. Maybe you can do the whole race with 10 or 15 kilos less fuel than another car, which is lap time.”>>08:38
08:39
While many factors lie beyond their control fuel consumption is, to some extent, in their own hands.
08:46
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“So we have some mix on the engine.”>>08:49
08:50
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English
“All of the drivers on their steering wheel have a button which enables them to make the engine run more lean or more rich and really what that’s doing is affecting the ratio of fuel and air inside the engine. By changing that ratio you can use less fuel but you will ultimately have less power.”>>09:06
09:07
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“We have the torque map which is rainy or dry you have different maps so we have the revs. We have so many things on the steering wheel which we are working a lot also when we are driving.”>>09:20
09:21
This season drivers may also have to consider one or two options at their disposal.
09:26
Original sound: Fernando Alonso, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“We’ve been practising some lift offs, before the corners breaking a little bit earlier and can make 2 tenths slower a timed lap but that’s around 2 or 3% fuel savings.”>>09:37
09:39
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“When you have a heavy car the way you go into a high speed corner you can go in a different way which you use a little bit less the throttle taking away the gas a little bit earlier but breaking much later so you have many things you can do to save a little bit more fuel.”>>09:55
09:56
Because each circuit is different, ensuring that drivers have enough fuel to finish but carry the minimum weight across the line, presents a major challenge for the race engineers.
10:05
Rob Smedley, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Race Engineer, English
“Monaco itself is a very, very high down force circuit. That means basically that you use more fuel. If you look at Monza, Monza is a very low down force circuit, so you tune the car to have a very low drag level.”>>10:18
10:19
Whichever circuit their racing on the drivers will have a very heavy car to start the race and a lighter one to finish. Ultimately the aim will be the same, to drive at the very limit, wherever that limit may be.
10:32
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“You’re talking about two completely different cars to drive. But you are in the limit in both directions you know, you need to be in the limit otherwise you are losing time.”>>10:41
10:42
Original sound: Fernando Alonso, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“I think we are ready. We have some innovative products from shell that we’ve been testing all winter and I think that we found the right compromise and we have to be very optimistic.”>>10:51
10:54
After 9 months of work, push is coming to shove. 3 weeks later, all the effort proves worthwhile.
11:09
There’s more cause of celebration ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, the 450 th race of the two partners long- standing technical collaboration.
11:19
Original sound: Richard Bracewell, Shell Global Sponsorships Manager, English “Shell with Ferrari together now since the beginning, have had 12 drivers championships and 10 constructors championships and it has been a tremendous partnership and obviously since 96, the partnership has been probably the most successful period for any one team in motorsports.”>>11:34
11:35
The partnership was established over 80 years ago when Enzo Ferrari founded the Scuderia Ferrari in Modena in Italy’s Emilia Romania region originally, as the racing team for Alfa Romeo.
11:48
Original sound: Piero Ferrari, Ferrari S. p. A. Vice President, English “This picture is the beginning of a story. This is 1929, the beginning of Scuderia Ferrari. This was the racing team, you see the facility and you see in front of the facility the petrol station of Shell.”>>12:06
12:08
In 1943 Ferrari moved his operation down the road to Maranello, where the first road cars to bear his name were built four years later. The Scuderia remains the only team to have raced in Formula One continuously since its inception in 1950.
12:26
Original sound: Piero Ferrari, Ferrari S. p. A. Vice President, English
“My father was a very tough person, but was able to give to every person in Ferrari from the last mechanic to the team manager to the general manager the right motivation to push, push, push everyday.”>>12:43
12:45
Apart from one relatively brief period, the partners have worked together since the Formula One Championship began and have won over a third of the races they’ve entered in all competitions.
12:57
Original sound: Piero Ferrari, Ferrari S. p. A. Vice President, English
“My father was looking to a partner and a fuel and oil has always been a very important part of engine development. The materials you can use in the engine is strictly linked to the fuel that you are using, to the oil that you are using in your engine. So my father was convinced of this since when he was team manager of Alfa Romeo in the 20s.”>>13:30
13:31 Original sound: Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari S. p. A. President, English “Shell was crucial in our victories, particularly in the last, let me say, 15 years, where the competition has been very tight. 1/10 th , 2/10 th , the work has been crucial to gain what was necessary to be competitive.”>>13:50
14:00
On a visit to the north west of England between races Fernando Alonso is about to learn how some of his competitive advantage is created and maintained.
He’s not the first VIP to be shown around at Thornton, but knows better than anyone what the developments produced in the lab can deliver on the track.
Andy is going to explain to you a little bit about the fuel development, how we do it…
14:22
Original sound: Fernando Alonso, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“I think for a drivers point of view the relationship, between your team and the partners are very important because we have to be completely focused in the driving but we know that behind us there is a very big effort from everybody. So that gives us the confidence because we know that we are in good hands.”>>14:41
14:43
Fuel formulators have been under particular pressure this season, but for the developers of new lubricants too, the search for improvement is rigorous and relentless.
14:54
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English “Lubricant isn’t just a fluid that’s thrown in afterwards. It’s a component like a piston or a conrod or a camshaft.”>>15:01
15:04
Inside the engine, the lubricant forms a film to protect moving parts like the pistons, camshaft and crankshaft bearings. Or keeping to an absolute minimum, the losses of energy these areas may produce.
15:16
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English
“The art is, first of all getting performance as high as possible with just enough protection to get to the end of the race with a suitable margin for safety.”>>15:24
15:25
Fuel formulators have had more latitude in the design of their new products this year, but ultimately, their parameters are fixed. But lubricant developers have no such constraints.
15:36
Original sound: Dan Jamieson, Shell Trackside Support Team, English “The lubricant side is slightly different because we don’t actually have any rules which is great news for Mark Wakem. He’s allowed to use all of his experiences, know-how, and his expertise.”>>15:46
15:47
Formula One cars use a dry sump system, which pumps oil around the engine via a separate oil tank. It’s more efficient than the wet sump in the average road car, but it also causes engineers one major headache
16:00
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English
“There’s a lot of chaos going on inside the engine. The oil is thrown around it picks up air. You want to lubricate with a liquid with a minimum amount of air in it as possible because you want to lubricate with a liquid not a compressible, spongy material.”>>16:13
16:14
Through a careful combination of additives, engineers can speed up the removal of large air bubbles. But they also need to make the oils passage through the engine as easy as possible.
16:24
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English
“We’re always trying to drive down the viscosity, the thickness, of the oil but not so far that you actually lose protection.”>>16:30
16:31
Original sound: Dan Jamieson, Shell Trackside Support Team, English
“We want it to foam to get to part of the engine that’s hard to reach, but if there’s too much foam then that stops the lubrication and you’re going to get a film and that stops it doing its job.”>>16:41
16:45
Like the fuels, new lubricants are tested in Maranello before the best is blended in larger batches at Thornton. But that’s not where the assistance ends.
16:56
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English
“We have the trackside team at every race, Ferrari value this very highly. We call it a blood test.”>>17:01
17:02
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English “Every time you go out in your car, we get a sample like this from the garage and its always got a number of kilometres on it.”>>17:09
17:10
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English
“When an engine or a component wears, the metals it wears off end up in the oil, and by analysing that you can tell how fast its wearing.”>>17:18
17:19
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English
“If we see something that looks abnormal, we tell Ferrari immediately.”>>17:23
17:24
Original sound: Aldo Costa, Scuderia Ferrari Technical Director, English
“If we see something that looks abnormal, we tell Ferrari immediately.”>>17:27
17:28
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English
“If you like, it’s like an early warning system for what’s going on inside your engine.”>>17:32
17:34
Original sound: Dan Jamieson, Shell Trackside Support Team, English
“To be there is unique enough and it shows the trust, I think, between the two companies.”>>17:38
17:42
Original sound: Fernando Alonso, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“Shell analyse the oils during the weekend and obviously it’s nice to know what they are finding and what is the situation with our engine that we need to race on Sunday afternoon.”>>17:52
18:04
A month after Fernando Alonso’s podium finish in Spain and well into the European leg of the championship, his partner himself returns home, even if he does end up a long way off shore, and even further upstream
Although his grandfather emigrated to South America from Italy, and he himself speaks Italian well, Felipe Massa is a Brazilian and proud of it.
18:40
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“I know its fantastic to go home. The place you are born and the place you grow and is always nice to go home and to see how important your country as well. how many important things we have and how important it is to also to the other countries as well.”
18:54
The Fluminense is a vast floating oil platform the size of four football pitches. To many of its workers, Massa’s brilliant driving in the 2008 championship, when he was denied the title by Lewis Hamilton on the final day, have made him a national hero.
19:20
His visit has been planned for 6 months, there may be worrying events unfolding elsewhere, but Massa is not about to let anyone down.
19:30
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“This is the first time I came here and it’s just amazing to see all the details. You know, everything does here. I think this is just fantastic and I think you and learn and you enjoy a lot.”>>19:41
19:42
In recent races, the speed and reliability that marked his team’s start to the season have proved elusive. After setting the early pace, it’s the red cars that are now playing catch up.
19:54
Original sound: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari F1 Driver, English
“The feeling is always to improve, to make the evolutions as quick as possible, to have a the competitive car in the next race. we had some difficult races, this is true, but ehh firstly the people you work is always the best and you have to improve this situation. its true that we had a very difficult weekend in turkey. but you know, I hope we improve the car as quick as possible to be back on the top.”>>20:02
20:04
Ferrari and their technological partners have their work cut out. They may be off the pace for now, but developments are already in the pipeline. In the world of Formula One, nothing stands still for very long.
20:30
Ten races into the campaign, Mike Evans is again at Maranello, first to look back, then to move forward.
20:39
Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader “We’re well into the season now, nearly halfway point and the fuels have behaved very well. We expected some issues with fuel tank temperatures but those have not manifested themselves so that’s gone well. The overall efficiency of the fuel is very very good. We are getting good, good fuel consumptions so we are now looking at developing fuels for the latter part of the season.”>>20:58
21:02
Two batches of the fuels used in Bahrain have been made so far. But since then, Mike and his team have been focusing on new formulations. The challenge now is to get them tested, approved, and blended in larger quantities as soon as possible.
21:15
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English “We’ve just recently tested these fuels s153 to 155…obviously then we’ve blended a larger quantity of 153. We’ve been working very hard with luca marmorini, dave salters and the team. We’re really trying to push the overall efficiency of the engine with regards on the fuel appetite. Towards the second half of the season there are several challenging circuits coming along. we are mindful that we probably somewhere like singapore and suzuka are very very long races so that will stretch the cars, see how good their fuel efficiency is. we’re hard at work developing products for those final races.”>> 21:41
21:46
On the lubricant side too, the demand for improvement remains constant, even if the time available does not.
21:53
Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader the level of “Response we have to achieve in formula one is really very fast. we may be doing two or three new race oils a year. but to achieve that, we’re doing 2 or 3 iterations for each of those race oils while we’re developing it with ferrari. so one week we’re doing the discussion and the testing here, by the end of the next week there’s an oil at maranello on a test bed.”>>22:16
22:31
The 2010 season is unlikely to be the sole priority for any Formula One team and its partners. With future rule changes in prospect, new development programs are now needed to meet the demand of future campaigns. The possible return in 2011 of Kinetic energy recovery systems or KERS which reuse waste kinetic energy generated during breaking is just one of the issues (insert ‘opportunities’) looming large on the horizon. But the biggest opportunities for Formula One’s technological partners will arrive then the current engine development restrictions are lifted ahead of the 2013 season, the sunlight at the end of a long tunnel.
23:15
Original sound: Mike Evans, Shell Formula One Fuels Development Project Leader, English the engine regulations are likely to change for 2013 with a smaller 1.4 1.6 litre 4 cylinder forced induction so that’s super charged or turbo charged, which has got quite a different fuel appetite to the current fuels we have for the v8 engine. so we’re just trying to see where we are, where we can help ferrari with the modeling work for the 2013 engine because its, there are only two years away from when they’ll need that engine running which doesn’t leave them much time.
23:44
When engine development was frozen, some Formula One design teams were rationalized of disbanded altogether. The skills and talents of those left will be much in demand over the coming months. While the support of their technological partners, will be more important than ever.
24:00
Original sound: Luca Marmorini Scuderia Engine & Electronics Director, English “To develop a competitive engine to have a reliable and powerful unit, you need to develop together with a partner lubricants and fuel that fits perfectly your engine and for this you need the long term partnership. the advantage, for ferrari to have such a long term technical partner is that big important thing for us.”>>24:21
24:22
For the suppliers of fuel, lubricants and their technologies, the use of bio-components will be a more prominent feature of the Formula One landscape. For them, the challenges ahead present the chance for them to reassess their priorities, regroup, and revitalize their relationships with the sport, their teams, and their customers.
24:42
Original sound: Dr. Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, English
“The main reason we work with the ferrari formula one team, its not about sponsorship its not about putting the pecten on the car, its for us to be able to use formula one to demonstrate new technology, to test out new innovation, and to ultimately make sure our customers really are benefitting from the latest technological advancements.”>>25:01
25:03
Original sound: Mark Wakem, Shell Formula One Lubricants Development Project Leader, English
“My response to the technical regulations will eventually be translated into things that we can use on the road. you may see it first in formaula one in better power, but in the road car you are looking for better fuel economy, better mileage from your fuel and lower co2 emissions.”>>25:21
Ends: 25:36