Presented by Shell
Shell and Scuderia Ferrari HP this week celebrate 75 years since its first race victory in Formula 1 at the 1951 British Grand Prix.
“Seventy-five years… and I've been there for between a quarter and a third of this story, and been able to work with two of the champions - Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen - who won with Shell and Ferrari.”
It’s now over 20 years since Marc Gené joined Scuderia Ferrari as a Formula 1 test driver, a role in which he’s had enormous first-hand experience of the team’s partnership with Shell - from sometimes being first to trial its latest F1 race fuel developments, to even driving an F1 car filled with Shell’s road fuel at a promotional event.
“Shell was with Ferrari from the very, very beginning,” says Gené when asked what the Shell and Scuderia Ferrari HP partnership means to him. “Watch the movie of Ferrari - you can see it’s the first logo that Enzo Ferrari already had on the car when Scuderia Ferrari was created. It’s really nice to see that it’s probably the longest and most successful partnership in the history of Formula 1.”
He puts the partnership’s incredible longevity down to the two companies’ common values.
“We are both very loyal companies, and companies that value history,” Gené explains.
“I went to a Shell event the other day, and noticed that most of the Shell employees stay in the company for a very long time. Likewise at Ferrari.
“And then of course: innovation. At Ferrari we constantly innovate. I’m very happy that this year with our Formula 1 car, we’ve innovated in a couple of areas where other teams copied us!
“And with Shell also, innovation is very important.”
The 'best era' of testing
In his work as a test driver - especially in the days of unlimited on-track testing - Gené was often first to try the latest innovations from both Scuderia Ferrari and Shell.
“I was the test driver in the best era of test drivers,” Gené smiles. “I was very lucky to live through that. Now test drivers do testing on simulators. In our time, we did just so many thousands of kilometres of [on-track] testing. It was the most fun.”
He remembers so often hearing of “a new Shell formulation that was going to give you extra power”, and of test days at Monza where that added power or stronger engine response as a direct result of a Shell race fuel upgrade was immediately obvious.
“Fuel and lubricants are very important in Formula 1 nowadays to achieve performance, efficiency and reliability,” Gené adds. “These three pillars are very important in a Formula 1 team and Shell are very important for us on those.
“There are three main areas where fuel can have an impact. First is pick-up: when you go back on the power, how responsive it is. You can achieve improvement there with the fuel.
“Then just power - the power curve of an engine.
“And then top end, because on the top end also is when you really need the most, especially when the engines were V10s and you were revving them very, very high - in the era when I was racing, we were reaching close to 20,000rpm.”
Constant reliability analysis
Gené has the utmost respect for the amount of behind the scenes work done by Shell, including the constant analysis to support Scuderia Ferrari HP’s reliability efforts.
Asked what he thought might surprise fans about Shell’s role at Scuderia Ferrari HP if they were simply familiar with the company as a logo on a petrol pump, Gené immediately highlights the Shell Trackside Laboratory - the mobile chemistry suite at a grand prix.
“I think that they'll be surprised about the Trackside Lab, the fact that Shell has a big say in helping the technicians on reliability,” he says.
“Every time the car goes into the garage, they take a sample, they analyse it. Very few people know that.
“I've spent a lot of time in the Trackside Lab. Sometimes I've even done the test just for me to know what they do and how the test is.
“And few people know how many hours of work are done back in the laboratories that they have. When the best formulations come to Maranello, there's been a lot of work prior to that - many, many hours of development time.”
Out of the ordinary events
Gené’s work with Shell and Scuderia Ferrari has always been diverse. Promotional events have taken him to city streets across the world to demonstrate Shell-fuelled Ferrari F1 cars, even on one occasion ‘stopping’ at a normal petrol station to fuel his F1 cars on Shell’s road fuel blend. His work with Ferrari’s Corse Clienti programme has allowed him to drive Shell-fuelled F1 cars from almost every decade in F1 history and all engine configurations.
“I've driven the old turbo cars, then the V12, V10, V8. Actually, I'm probably one of the very few drivers in the world that have driven on the same day V12, V10 and V8-engined F1 cars, because I had to do some shakedowns and it just happened,” Gené recalls.
“And it was really nice too, it was like travelling through time, going through different 40 years of history.”
Evolving with F1's rules
He points to how the role of race fuel and lubricants has evolved with F1’s regulations, playing a crucial reliability role as rules restricted component usage, and then ensuring high fuel efficiency as that became an even greater priority for race strategy in the hybrid regulations.
“Shell is a partner in three very important pillars: performance, reliability and efficiency,” Gené explains.
“Now the engines and gearboxes have to last so long - reliability is very important. And having a very efficient engine is key to success - and Shell can help us with that.”
As far as Shell and Scuderia Ferrari HP are concerned, there’s no reason why their partnership couldn’t go on for another 75 years.
But what kind of F1 does Gené think Scuderia Ferrari HP will be racing in by then?
“Ferrari has two amusement parks, one in Abu Dhabi and there is one close to Barcelona. And there is one attraction there that’s like a 4D cinema, where you sit in a car and you go through time,” he says.
“And at the end of it, there is the Formula 1 of the future. Closed cockpit cars - which is safer, more aerodynamic, more modern. And circuits with loop-the-loops. It could go that way, or like the Steven Spielberg movie, Ready Player One!”
Given how much F1 has changed since Ferrari and Shell's very first race victory 75 years ago in the 1951 British Grand Prix, that prediction seems entirely plausible.
from The Race https://ift.tt/83HdKNb
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