The real power behind Ferrari

One safety instruction is very clear: No smoking.

Nearby is a storage facility with hundreds of barrels of highly volatile premium-octane fuel. Around 700 litres of petrol per car are about to be transported to the next grand prix. That's around 15 times more petrol than your average family vehicle can accommodate.

It's an understatement, therefore, to say that safety at this facility is taken extremely seriously.

Thankfully, in the unlikely event of any conflagration, we're on the banks of a major river. The Elbe flows through the nearby city of Hamburg, in the north of Germany, before debouching into the North Sea.

For the logistics of transporting fuel to races, it's the perfect location for Shell to house its fuel and lubricants technology centre. Thousands of litres of fuel and oil can be transported in container ships, flown via Hamburg airport, or even driven across the continent. Budapest, arguably the further distance to drive from here for a grand prix, is just over 700 miles away.

All the petrol used by Ferrari-powered engines in Formula 1 originates at this site, but it's not just a refinery.

There are numerous laboratories - and testing dynos - to help blend ever more powerful and efficient race fuel and more durable and reliable lubricants. Formula 1 is one of the few global categories of motorsport (MotoGP is another) that doesn't have a sole fuel supplier - and the war to be the best is fierce.

Petronas, ExxonMobil (Esso), Total and BP/Castrol all supply teams, while Shell has an exclusivity deal with Ferrari and its customer teams (Alfa Romeo and Haas).

While the partnership with Ferrari hasn't been continuous (the Italian state-owned oil company ENI supplied the team between 1974 and '95), there is a historic link.

Ferrari's very first car, the 125 S, rolled out from the workshops in 1947 with Shell fuel and lubricants inside. Today, every single Ferrari supercar that leaves Maranello is lubricated with Shell Helix Ultra oil.

The technical partnership between Ferrari and Shell is so intertwined that fuel and engine development is synchronised. Shell's understanding of the Scuderia's engines is so detailed that it helps shape design to extract even greater performance.

The advancement of this area of research is so fertile that last year, 21% of Ferrari's gain in power came through Shell's development of fuels and oils. So how exactly do they do it? Time to stub out that cigarette, don a white coat and safety glasses, and enter the laboratory...

"This is where the magic happens," says Jann Risswick, a Shell fuel scientist who is surrounded by immaculately white equipment.

Forget the old idea of an alchemist with a long beard surrounded by smoke, mixing potions in test tubes. The creation of fuel compounds is so detailed that Shell uses computer simulation to create over 200,000 different formulations. And it hopes to push that to one million.

"When we talk about formulation, there are two things to consider. The ingredients - our stock of molecules - and the recipe, or how we blend them together," says Guy Lovett, Shell's motorsport innovation manager.

"We're constantly looking at new additive technologies, different base fuel molecules, and then when we've found the formulation we accelerate its implementation from here in the lab to the track as quickly as possible."

As an example of how fuel compounds can be altered to improve performance, Shell developed with V-Power technology a compound that removed dirt from the fuel injector nozzles as it passed through it. That meant every droplet of fuel was utilised and not clogged up in the injector.

The trickle-down nature of Shell's business means that the Dynaflex technology developed in the white-heat competition of F1 has found its way to the garage forecourt. Shell V-Power, which you can buy from the pump, contains 30% more cleaning molecules than its standard fuel.

Away from the fuels lab, there is a separate department for the development of lubricants.

The key for scientists here is to balance the viscosity of the engine oil: it must be thin enough to minimise viscous drag, which hampers performance, but thick enough to do the job of protecting the power unit's internals from damage.

"Less friction means we're losing less heat, so every kilojoule of energy from the fuel is producing more kilowatts of performance at the wheels," adds Lovett.

"However, with the FIA increasing engine mileage and reducing power units from five down to four and now three a season, it means reliability and durability is even more crucial.

"We need a viscosity that improves protection but reduces friction. It also has to work in extreme conditions, with an engine running at 15,000 rpm, temperatures over 1000C 
and the turbocharger rotating at 100,000 cycles a minute.

"That's enough to shear the oil. It's a horrendous environment and we're hoping the oil isn't destroyed by the engine.
 The challenge the scientists face who are formulating the
 oil is very complex."

As we tour the Hamburg plant we visit a room with the engine dynamometer. In here is a single cylinder from a Ferrari power unit in which new fuel and lubricant formulations are put through their paces.

Sophisticated monitoring equipment can determine any performance improvement in either power or efficiency. When approved it can be immediately shared with Ferrari - and brought to the race track.

"We at Shell were incredibly proud that 21% of Ferrari's power unit gain last year was down to fuels and lubricants and we're finding a growth area again this year," says Lovett. "We try to sync upgrades as Ferrari bring in their new power units and maximise performance across the whole season."

The research and development that Shell puts into its motorsport operations is significant and will continue as long as F1 continues to allow competition between suppliers.

But as the championship plans to cut costs, there could be an argument to move to a single fuel supplier - something Shell would resist.

"I think it's important for us to maintain that differentiation in fuel performance," says Lovett.

"In terms of our retail stations and business model, that's our lifeblood. We are passionate about marketing Shell V-Power as a higher performing, more efficient product in the marketplace. By having innovation to perform in F1, we can utilise it as a proving ground for the next generation of road cars."

This is one more thing for F1's rulemakers to consider as they look to reduce the cost of competing in future: for a good many sponsors and partners, their priorities are broader than can be fulfilled by a sticker on the side of a car.

It's what's on the inside that counts - and if that work is contributing to efficiency as well as performance, an aspect F1 is very keen to trumpet, then the expertise of the fuel suppliers must surely take on even greater importance.