Red Bull gets a fuel boost for Silverstone

A lack of a major engine upgrade won't prevent Red Bull Racing from enjoying a bit of a power boost at the British GP when its fuel supplier introduces a new mixture.

ExxonMobil concocted a new fuel for the opening round of the world championship this year in Australia, with an upgraded product scheduled to be used at Silverstone. 

"For the first step, we made a good gain," ExxonMobil Global Motorsport Technology Manager David Tsurusaki told Autosport.

"[The gain from the second fuel] is not as much as the first fuel, but I think it's a positive incremental step.

"We don't talk about the numbers but it's enough to rationalise a change.

"Internally, we're talking about introducing it at Silverstone, depending on validation. It's unpredictable stuff but I've told our team that is our target." 

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Fuel alchemy , and the hard work it represents in the laboratory, is an essential component of engine performance.

ExxonMobil believes its latest mixture surpasses anything Red Bull's previous supplier Total had, and is a match for its rivals' fuel.

"I think we've made a nice incremental step replacing the previous fuel, which they didn't think they had but we had it," he said.

"Now, we're in a pretty good place. We have a good working relationship, we're working closely with Red Bull and Renault. It's moving.

"I think we're close to [matching our rivals] now."

Because ExxonMobil initiated its technical relationship with Red Bull at a late stage, in January, a third update will likely only be ready for early 2018. 

"We think we can get to possibly three in reality," said Tsurusaki.

"We'd aim for the following year [for the third upgrade].

"We're already working on chemistry and processes for 2018. We didn't have the opportunity to do that last year."

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