Toto Wolff believes Aston Martin Red Bull Racing could be making a mistake by not using the same fuel and oil supplier as the works Renault Sport Formula One Team, and it could cost them some performance.
Red Bull uses ExxonMobil as its fuel and oil supplier whereas Renault uses BP/Castrol, and as of 2018, they are the only customer outfit on the grid not to be using the same supplier as its engine partner.
Mercedes-Benz prefers its own customer outfits to use the same Petronas fuel and oil as the works Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team, while Scuderia Ferrari do likewise with their customers and Shell.
Whilst Wolff, the Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, has no doubt that ExxonMobil can make world class fluids, he feels it would be more beneficial to the customers to use the same fuels as their engine suppliers, particularly as engines are calibrated using their preferred fuels and oils.
“ExxonMobil is capable of making a state of the art fuel, or BP/Castrol, or any of the top players,” said Wolff to Motorsport.com. “The strategic mistake is to opt for the commercial deal rather than making sure you are on the same specification of fuel and oil as the works team.
“Our teams have always used Petronas, apart from McLaren. It was never a question, because strategically you need to make sure that you are on the same performance levels, and therefore have the same fluids, as the works team.
“We’re all using the same fuels, because we’re calibrating our engines on one spec of fuel. If you have a different spec of fuel, you need a completely different engine calibration.
“You’re running different calibrations on track, which doesn’t give you any learning. You’re making your life complicated if you’re having different specs. It’s a philosophy.”
