Shell shows power of research

Wedged between the Red Bull and Mercedes pits is a white box about the size of a small caravan. Wedged into the same space are stacks of Pirelli tyres in tyre warmers and temporary walls shrouding fuel storage tanks known as carlottas.

Inside the box white box is Shell's fuel laboratory, believed to the only such facility in the pitlane and working exclusively for Scuderia Ferrari.

Normally there's three staff in there - the Technical Manager and two scientists. For the first race of the 2014, Shell has sent both of their Technical Managers, Ian Albiston and Guy Lovett to see in the new rules.

Albiston is starting his fourteenth year with Shell and Ferrari, his seventh as a technical manager. He and Guy Lovett each do half of the races on the Formula 1 calendar and divide their time between their London homes and Maranello when not on the road with the Scuderia.

As the door closes on the fuel lab, the sounds of the pitlane outside - in this case some loud, raucous music from the Red Bull pit, abruptly cease. The inside of the box looks like it's out of an Omo advertisement - bright, white surfaces, immaculately clean, with touch screens on the benches that run down either side of the lab.

A pair of centrifuges sit on the left-hand bench and nothing is out of place. A clean desk policy ensures our prying eyes don't see anything we shouldn't.

Tiny vials of fuel are stored in racks and several specimen bottles containing fuel are neatly lined up. The bottles have the car number inked on the side.

"What you see here goes to every Grand Prix," says Albiston. "We always have two scientists, one on fuels analysis on this side of the lab and engine oils and other oils on the other. You're probably asking well, what do we do in here? Three guys going round the world eating ice cream in the sun and parties every night. It's not quite true," he laughs.

Out in pitlane we'd seen a nest of fifty litre drums with V Power logos on the side. Guy Lovett  told us that the fuel had been flown in because development was still going on the new fuel. Since the new rules were announced in 2011, Lovett and his team have blended around fifty iterations.

Once delivered, the fuel is taken from the drums and put into what Ferrari call "carlottas", where the fuel is stored before being put into the car and when it is removed from the car.

"Every time Ferrari shift the fuel from the drums to the carlottas, we'll take a sample of fuel. When they shift the fuel from the car to the carlottas, we'll take a sample. We check and double check."

"Over the race weekend will do anywhere from thirty to thirty-five samples. A lot of the fuel work is done prior to the race weekend. It's a lot of work to make sure the carlottas are clean, a lot of work before the fuel gets anywhere near the car."

The reason so many samples are taken is simple - even a small irregularity in the fuel sample could mean the fuel is deemed illegal.

"The FIA can turn up at any time over the three days and take a sample of fuel from anywhere here. So they can take it from a drum, from a carlotta, could be the rig on a Sunday morning before the race, it could be from the car. It could be after qualifying or after the race.

"If there was an irregularity, what's the penalty? On a Friday, anywhere between a quarter or a half a million dollars fine. Saturday, we'd certainly be put to the back of the grid and Sunday you'd certainly be disqualified."

"So we could be front page headlines but for totally the wrong reasons. That's not why Shell gets involved in motorsport."

Albiston has been doing this for fourteen years and says he still loves it. "I always say, if hair doesn't come up on the back of your neck, it's time to give up. It still happens," he smiles.