Red Bull Racing has detailed on new lubricant from ExxonMobil which is helping them with faster pit stops as Alexander Albon gets a new race engineer.
Red Bull already holds the world record of a fastest F1 fit stop of 1.82s, which it did during the 2019 Brazilian GP. In 2020 as well, the team has five of the Top 10 quickest stops with 1.95s being the fastest for Max Verstappen during Styrian GP.
Not just the pit stops but the Red Bull group of F1 mechanics also did an amazing work ahead of the Hungarian GP, to fix Verstappen’s car in time for him to start and finish second despite an average qualifying, where the Dutchman was only seventh.
As the regulations with regards to chassis and also engine is slowly coming to a standstill ahead of the bigger change, F1 teams has look for new ways to extract performance – where one such area has been oil/fuel used on their machines.
Mercedes has credited a lot to Petronas for their success as Red Bull is not far behind with ExxonMobil. In a continuous push, the team detailed on a new type of lubricant they put in use from the 2020 F1 season, to help them with easier and faster pit stops.
The new Mobil 1 lubricant ‘produces high clamp loads and torque more consistently’, which leads to better performance delivery. It helps the mechanics, who are operating the guns, to remove wheel nuts more quickly, thereby resulting in consistent times.
Additionally, it also produces less residue, which can lead to deposits on goggles and gloves. ExxonMobil Global Motorsports Technology Manager, David Tsurusaki, said: “The racetrack is the ultimate proving ground and improvements in the wheel gun oil has not only made pit stops more efficient, but it is also better for the mechanics who deal with the oil on a daily basis.
“We extended our commitment to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing at the start of the year and as part of that we wanted to continue to deliver performance enhancing technology, wherever we can. I’m glad that our new MobilTM Wheel Gun Lubricant helps to showcase our advanced, high-performance oil range and hope it delivers results on track.”
Christian Horner added: “It is exciting to see how our technology partnership with ExxonMobil continues to develop performance, even in the most surprising of places. This new wheel gun lubricant demonstrates our partnership’s focus on innovation, but importantly also underlines our joint commitment to improving the health and safety of the Team.”
Looking ahead to this weekend’s British GP, Red Bull also revealed changes in its trackside team, with the return of Simon Rennie, who has been the race engineer of both Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo. He moved to a factory role from 2019 onward.
But he will return to replace Mike Lugg from British GP onward to be the race engineer of Albon, who has had a mixed start to his first proper season with Red Bull. Lugg has moved back to the factory as Rennie is to see-through the 2020 F1 season in trackside role.
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