By Samuel Ee

THE dust from the Marina Bay street circuit had barely settled when the 10 Formula One teams began packing up their cars and equipment for the next race in Shanghai. Also making preparations to leave for the Chinese Grand Prix was a high-tech outfit which supports the Ferrari team at every race - the Shell Track Lab.

Shell is the Ferrari Formula One team's technical partner, and the energy and petrochemicals giant not only develops the fuel and oil for the Italian racers, it also provides a full analytical service at each race on the F1 calendar.

No other F1 garage has a similar fuel and oil arrangement, and Shell has supported the Ferrari team for almost 50 years.

The lab is set up in a very small area of the Ferrari garage where five to seven Shell scientists run constant tests on the fuel and oil in the F1 cars to ensure that the drivers get the most performance out of them. Using cutting-edge technology, the Shell technical crew conducts more than 40 tests per weekend on the Shell V-Power, Shell Helix and Shell Spirax race products used in the cars, to ensure that the drivers will be able to get peak performance at all times.

The Shell team at each F1 race is supported by 50 members of the Shell Formula One team at its headquarters, in Shell laboratories and facilities around the world, as well as at the Scuderia Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy.

For the staff travelling to the 18 race tracks, they have to set up the instruments and prepare for the weekend's work by Wednesday. In Singapore last week, this was shortly after the Ferrari engineering trucks had arrived.

By Thursday, the cars are prepared and ready to run during the following day's practice session. This is when samples of fuel are taken from the cars, the carlotta - the machines that are used to transfer fuel in and out of the cars in the garage - and from the drums to ensure that the fuel is still in the prime condition in which it left Chester, UK and that there has been no contamination.

At the same time, the oil analyst runs 'base oil' samples from the car's engine and gearbox.

The Shell team shares their experiences with their Shell colleagues in various departments, and ensure that whatever they have learnt from Formula One is passed directly down through the company. One example of this concerns the Shell V-Power petrol.

According to Shell, the V-Power that motorists buy at the pump contains 99 per cent of the compounds used by the scarlet cars during a race weekend. This includes friction modification technology, for example. This technology is designed to help the engine turn more freely by targeting mainly the piston rings and unlocking valuable energy and improving horsepower. The fuel is also formulated with powerful cleansing agents to help improve responsiveness.

Shell says that its V-Power unleaded fuel is tailored to the exact requirements of the Ferrari engine and it is this attention to detail on the racetrack that helps the company produce the optimum product for improved performance on the road.

'Our technical partnership has seen the development of Shell V-Power race fuel, which is designed to provide Ferrari with three main advantages,' explains Mike Evans, the project leader of Shell Formula One Fuels Development. 'First, it gives the engine more power and responsiveness through optimised formulation and friction reduction. Second, improve fuel economy. And third, offer protection and increase the reliability of the engine.'

Not surprisingly, fuel economy is an ongoing development area. Mr Evans says that in F1, an extra lap before pitting can mean the difference between a win and a loss.

'Shell's objective is to create a lighter fuel,' he says. 'For example, say a Formula One fuel tank holds 100 litres. If the Shell V-Power race fuel we create weighs a kilogramme or two less than a competitor using the same size tank, then we could potentially give Ferrari an added lap advantage.'

To date, Ferrari has won 12 Formula One World Championship Drivers' Titles and nine Formula One World Championship Constructors' Titles with the support of Shell.

This article was first published in The Business Times on Oct 2, 2008.