The 2026 Formula One season is now just around the corner. With it comes the major regulatory revolution of the next campaign, which introduces numerous new features at both aerodynamic and power unit level. This broader picture also includes significant changes in the area of fuels: the new petrol will have to meet advanced sustainability standards and will no longer be synthesised from fossil materials. Not only that, limits and constraints have also been introduced on the flow of energy entering the engine, a factor that will shift the search for performance towards the energy density of the fuel, with the aim of reducing the weight and overall size of the cars. These aspects were analysed, in interviews with specialised media outlets, by Valeria Loreti, Shell Motorsport Technology Manager.
New challenges
As is well known, the most important parameter of a fuel is its energy content, namely the chemical energy released during combustion and converted into power. This is a parameter on which the 2026 regulations have intervened decisively, limiting the flow of chemical energy from the fuel injected into the combustion chamber. This constraint has pushed the partners of the various teams to change their priorities, placing greater emphasis on parameters that until now had received less attention, such as energy density. The higher the energy density, the less fuel is required for the same energy flow, making it possible to design smaller fuel tanks, with clear benefits in terms of weight and packaging.
“Beyond energy content, density is also important. The mass flow of fuel,” Valeria Loreti admitted, “is no longer regulated: if, within a certain volume of fuel, you have little energy, you need more of it and therefore you increase the weight.
In theory, the range of possible solutions is very wide. I believe this is the first time that, depending on how we formulate the fuel, we can even end up changing the shape of the car. There will be a limit on the energy flow, so if I have a fuel with high energy density, that is an advantage.”
Big opportunities
The new power units will retain the same architecture as the previous-generation V6 engines, but despite appearances they will be very different. The 2026 regulations impose different limits on compression ratio and turbo pressure, factors that have led all fuel suppliers to rethink the formulation of their fuels.
“Temperatures, combustion pressures, the stoichiometric ratio: all the parameters that define the relationship between fuel and engine are fundamental. We develop these fuels starting from the molecules, from combustion chemistry and efficiency. But then we have to complement each other with the engineer’s knowledge.
Every time there is a regulation change and it becomes possible to intervene in thermodynamics, for us it is an opportunity to improve: engineers share their vision and the technical direction. From that, we understand how to formulate the fuel.
In the early 2000s, everything was done in the laboratory: 30 to 40 different fuel candidates were prepared, around ten were selected, and those were produced in sufficient quantities to be tested on the engine. Today, the number of tests is limited and, thanks to digital models, we can select the candidates with the highest probability of delivering maximum performance.
For the fuel we currently have on track, we have carried out around one million simulations. It is a continuous loop, in which this model interacts with those that Ferrari develops to make predictions from its own perspective.”
The 2026 fuel race isn’t therefore just about environmental sustainability; it is a complex engineering puzzle. By optimizing the chemical makeup of every drop, teams like Ferrari and Shell hope to unlock a “double win”—more efficient power delivery and a more agile, compact chassis that could define the hierarchy of the next generation of Formula 1.
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