At face value, the cars that won this year’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans 24 Hours share little beyond their Ferrari badges.
Charles Leclerc’s SF-24 and the 499P Le Mans Hypercar driven by Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina would appear to have even less in common with the Chevrolet-powered Team Penske Dallara DW12 in which Josef Newgarden dramatically conquered the Indianapolis 500.
Look carefully however and you’ll spot that each carries the distinctive logos of fuel and oil giant Shell. But its contribution to the winning cars across all three elements of motorsport’s triple crown amounts to far more than a decal, as Shell’s motorsport delivery manager Valeria Loreti explains.
“All the motorsports relationships are for us through partnerships,” the Italian tells Autosport. “It's not really the sticker on the side of the car; there is a lot of technical discussion behind, a lot of striving to provide for our customers and meet their needs on a dedicated basis.”
The differing rulesets of series in which Shell’s expansive range of partners competes demands that each gets different tailored products and service. Different use cases ensure no shortcuts can be taken. But Loreti is clear that in all cases, there is a common goal: “Maximum performance, maximum efficiency and nowadays also maximum sustainability.”
Whereas F1 and MotoGP, in which Shell partners Ducati, allow multiple fuel manufacturers which puts a premium on development to find an edge on performance and efficiency, this is less of a factor in IndyCar. All teams have since 2023 used Shell’s renewable race fuel, featuring high quantities of second-generation ethanol derived from the waste portion of sugarcane, while this year its Pennzoil sub-brand introduced a new Performance+ Racing Oil product based on re-refined oils.
Fuel development is off the table too in the World Endurance Championship and World Rally Championship, where entrants must use control fuel from TotalEnergies and P1 Racing Fuels respectively. But manufacturers are free to work with partners to develop oils and lubricants that in turn feed into commercially available products.
“The big value that we extract from the R&D in motorsport is actually the learnings,” Loreti outlines. “We can really push the boundaries to create new products, new formulations that really deliver that extra mile on fuel economy or that extra horsepower on performance.”
The sustainability focus demanded both by organisers and boardrooms, pushes Shell chemists to think outside the box in developing new solutions. That the bespoke transmission fluid in BMW’s M Hybrid V8 LMDh contender and the range of Shell EV-Plus E-Transmission and E-Thermal Fluids developed for Nissan’s Formula E operation contain over 70% bio-based raw materials derived from renewable resources evidences how Loreti’s team has to be “really on our toes”.
This is appreciated by those driving the cars too. As part of its Le Mans-winning roster on the 499P’s event bow last year, and a reserve driver on its F1 arm, Antonio Giovinazzi has as good an appreciation as any driver for Shell’s contribution to Ferrari’s racing operations. It takes any number of factors to work harmoniously to bring about success, but only one component failure to negate months of careful preparation and fine-tuning.
“To win a race like Le Mans, the reliability is the main thing,” affirms Giovinazzi. “You need to be in the track in every minute. All details make the difference and Shell is part of these details that makes our car better in terms of reliability, of speed, everything.”
Ferrari’s back-to-back Le Mans victories attest to the smooth-running collaboration, which should perhaps come as no surprise given its well-documented longevity. Enzo Ferrari engaged Shell when he started up his own team that ran Alfa Romeos in 1929. To Giovinazzi, “it is a partner that has always been there, Shell is part of our family”.
Although F1 races are shorter than WEC bouts, durability is no less significant. Just four powertrains are permitted per year before grid penalties come into play, making on-site support a vital asset to Ferrari and its engine customers Haas and Sauber. “Especially in F1, they have rooms where they check all the oils, the fuel, they spend a lot of time there to analyse everything,” says Giovinazzi.
The trackside laboratory he references “is a part of the service that we've been offering since ever”, explains Loreti, with two or three analysts always in attendance. She estimates that over 100 fuel and oil samples are analysed per Grand Prix weekend, checking for compliance and analysing the oil for traces of engine wear. This is relayed to engineers for decisions on mapping and determining when to change components from the power unit pool.
Loreti cites accuracy and speed of delivering analysis as Shell’s great strengths.
“The data that we can provide Ferrari is really relevant for their track decisions,” she says. “The key elements that an engine oil needs to deliver is around cooling the engine, cleaning the engine, preventing wear and friction, protecting it from every extra demand.
“The engine is the heart of the car and needs to be capable of delivering until the very end. The enabler of this is the engine oil. It's not really different from our road customers; they also want the engine to be reliable and have a long lifespan. How the oils are formulated is very different but it’s a very similar mission to accomplish.”
And that mission doesn’t stop because of its 2024 successes. While the winning constructor of Le Mans is Ferrari, Giovinazzi is clear the credit deserves to be shared.
“It's not only Ferrari,” he concedes. “We’re all proud to win with Ferrari. But behind that, there's a lot of partners that work hard to achieve that result. Without them, it will not happen.”
