In a bid to find answers to its rival’s engine developments, most recently Renault with their claimed 1,000hp breakthrough & DRS controlled power increase, Mercedes turns to its fuel supplier Petronas to boost their current spec engine.

Andy Holmes, head of research of the Malaysian oil company said that his group will chase more radical concepts as traditional avenues of fuel development have already been exhausted. In some respects, taking advantage of the grey area in FIA rulings, a loop-hole in the regs perhaps.

Holmes explains: “For us, what is critical at the moment is a pipeline of new ideas, new chemistries, and tuning the fuel properties to meet the challenges that are coming” says the engineer at Petronas’ Turin research facility.

According to Italian motorsport.com, this ‘trick’ fuel boosted the Mercedes at Hungary, helping Hamilton take victory. Indeed the publication claims that there will likely be a ‘chemical battle’ between the top teams in the second half of this season. Mercedes have joined the battle, using a new fuel to enrich the Phase 2 power unit that debuted in Canada.

According to the rumors that leaked from Brixworth, the contribution of the new petrol would have been of 18hp, a significant leap considering it was achieved only with chemical components and without requiring intervention on the power unit design engineers.

According to sources, it was necessary to revise the electronic mapping with new advances in favour of greater efficiency, which translated into an increase in performance, but also in the lower of fuel consumption. It seems that the secret blend of molecules that make up this new fuel are the result of a collaboration between Petronas and a small German laboratory that has developed a new synthetic fuel without breaking FIA rules, but capable of a distinct calorific value higher.

Shell had brought a new fuel for Ferrari that had given them advantages in Hockenheim. Mercedes reacted immediately, anticipating at the Hungaroring a gasoline that probably should have been a weapon to counter the Italian team at Spa and Monza, where, at least on paper, the SF90 should be the fastest.

Let’s see what Renault and Honda, with their respective partners, can come up with.

Max on Lewis: Won a lot, but doesn’t define a great

A rather ongoing debate here on TJ13 over the years, perhaps less so in recent times, no doubt due to the fact it’s been discussed ad infinitum – Is Lewis Hamilton ‘A Great’ of F1? (WORTH A READ COMPARING TEAM MATE BATTLES BEFORE MERCEDES)

Certainly, during an interview with the UK newspaper The Telegraph , Max Verstappen was asked why Max is so reluctant to lavish extravagant accolades upon Lewis Hamilton, then the UK paper says, in a rather typical UK media fashion, say that by common consent that Lewis Hamilton is “the finest driver of his generation”. I suppose many would see that as true, obviously discounting the…………… READ MORE