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Dieter Rencken – Hungary blog
July 30, 2012
With eleven races done it’s been a long hard slog already, yet still nine rounds remain in the longest season on record – with seven of those being flyaways in destinations as far apart as Japan and Korea and Texas and Brazil. But, F1 personnel gleefully look forward to the Hungarian Grand Prix for reasons other than racing, for the race marks the start of the sport’s well-deserved annual four-week break.
It was the playboy (former) team owner Eddie Jordan who first suggested the concept of a holiday in F1, and he came in for much stick at the time. However, the Dubliner was determined to force it through, pushing Bernie Ecclestone on the basis that F1 people are racing enthusiasts at heart but still have families of whom they saw very little during increasingly packed seasons. F1’s tsar relented on humanitarian grounds, and only later did the reason for EJ’s constant cajoling become clear: he had purchased a new yacht, and had no wish to wait until November before sailing the high seas…
Still, the four weeks make for a welcome break, and Sauber traditionally sets the scene by inviting around 20 international journalists to dinner in Hungary Thursday, with team boss Peter Sauber and CEO Monisha Kaltenborn each hosting a table. This set the scene for a weekend with a feminine F1 theme, for on Friday I sat down to lunch with Shell’s fuel wizard Dr Cara Tredget – of which more anon.
Sauber’s dinner proved thoroughly enjoyable, with the team’s kitchen staff certainly going out of their respective ways to lay on a superb spread, but the cherry on top was being sat beside Monisha, who regaled us with real insider stories, many of which were absolutely hilarious, but must, most unfortunately, remain off-record.
But, her discretion made clear why she is not only the first Indian-born person to hold a senior position within F1, but also the first female. Monisha trained as a lawyer in Austria and London, then spent her early career in corporate law before being seconded to Sauber by an investor in the Swiss team.
With F1 becoming increasingly legal – driver contracts typically run to 100 pages and the Concorde Agreement, the document which governs the sport’s technical, sporting and governance issues, to double that – joining the team full-time was logical, as was Peter’s recent awarding of a third of his team’s share to her. A lady in the fast lane, for sure, and one to whom 68-year-old-Peter can safely hand over the running of the team to when he retires – having said he has no wish to sit on the pit wall after the age of 70, namely October 2013.
Friday saw me sit down with Cara Tredget, Shell’s Technology Manager and an organic chemistry specialist. The Oxford graduate holds responsibility for the company’s Formula 1 products, more specifically the fuels, oils and lubrication formulations supplied to Ferrari.
While Cara and her team – Shell operates a full mobile laboratory fitted out in a shipping container which travels to every race – are obviously hard at work formulating products to keep championship leader Fernando Alonso’s title aspirations on track, they are simultaneously sorting the requirements of the 1600cc V6 turbo engines which are scheduled to replace the archaic, heavy metal V8s come 2014.
Where the current engines produce around 750 bhp from 2,4 litres plus draw on an additional 80 bhp for six seconds per lap from KERS, the new generation will deliver ‘just’ 530 horses via a complex energy-efficient turbo system, but be supplemented by advanced KERS systems adding another 180 or so horsepower for 30 seconds per lap. Thus the KERS kick will not only be massive, but last five times longer than present –placing massive demands on battery packs.
While Shell will need to devise fuels with increased anti-knock properties to cope with the higher compression and temperature demands of the new engines, not to speak of oils and lubrications capable of withstanding the astronomical heat of turbos, Cara divulged it was the cooling liquid required to maintain the advanced KERS battery packs at peak operating temperatures that provided the biggest challenge.
The liquid, which needs to be light to minimise the penalty and an excellent conductor of heat, also need to be non-conductive, fire-proof and able to be shopped around the world, often on aircraft – a tall order, indeed, but one the Oxford graduate and her staff are sure to deliver. Still, the new power units need to be up and running within a year…
Talking F1 females: during the weekend news broke that Maria de Villota, the Marussia tester who is one of two women to hold a position (the other is Williams’s tester Susie Wolff) suffered horrific injuries in a pre-Silverstone crash, was well on her way to recovery and had returned to her home in Spain. Good news, indeed, and further proof that Woman Power has its rightful place in F1
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