Castrol’s technical partnership with the WilliamsF1 Team goes far beyond the engine department. Equally important are the gearbox and hydraulic oils that ensure the highest levels of performance and reliability.

Castrol’s involvement with the WilliamsF1 Team dates back to 1997, the year that Jacques Villeneuve won the World Championship. During that period Castrol’s oils have protected the team’s Renault and BMW engines, but there are other key areas of the car in which the company has played a vital role. Without Castrol’s race-proven gearbox and hydraulic products, the Formula 1 car wouldn’t be able to function.

For whom the Bell tolls:
Castrol’s man in the WilliamsF1 Team garage is Adrian Bell, who has been working for the company for nearly seven years. He first got involved on the motor sport side in 2001, and became the on-circuit representative in June 2004. Adrian wears WilliamsF1 gear and is an integral part of the team, reflecting the importance placed on Castrol’s role as a key partner of the team. In fact the company supplies some 40,000 litres of engine and gearbox oil each season.

“Aside from the engine oil we formulate gearbox oil and hydraulic oil,” Bell explains. “They are the two other main fluids that go into the car. The gearbox oil specifically developed for the Williams car. Like the engine oil, it is developed and manufactured at Pangbourne at the Castrol Technology Centre.

“The gearbox oil is fully synthetic, and the anti-wear chemistry that’s used and the technology in that is not too dissimilar to that used on road cars. It is passed down to the consumer products that are used in road cars.

A pretty good formulation:
Castrol and WilliamsF1 work together to develop both engine and gearbox oils, although the specification of the latter doesn’t change as often because the specification currently in use does such a good job.

“Certainly the engine oil varies, and we’re constantly looking at developing it,” says Bell. “There’s no limit to the amount of times that we might upgrade during the year. And the same applies to the gearbox oil. But it hasn’t actually changed this year, because we found a pretty good formulation.

“It’s been working very, very well. It’s got the right amount of anti-wear, and we haven’t run into any wear-related problems on the gearbox. Also the characteristics of the oil are not hampering power release, so this year there hasn’t been any necessity to change it.

“Basically oil can affect power release – the amount of power that actually gets to the wheels from the engine. The biggest gains are to be had in the engine oil, but gearbox oil can also help. Higher levels of vibrosity reduce friction, and obviously friction reduces power. The other area where you can release more power is by having lighter oils that have lower churning losses.”

One of Bell’s main tasks on a Grand Prix weekend is to keep a close eye on the gearbox oil that has been used in the car.

“The gearbox oil is changed at the end of every day, or when a ratio change takes place. Engine oil is analysed after every session, but gearbox oil is only analysed at the end of every day. That’s partly down to the fact that it’s not so easy to access the gear oil when it’s in the car. So when the gearbox is taken off at the end of the day some of the oil is drained out and it’s easier to get access to it.

“A new gearbox goes in at the end of the day Friday, and that gearbox will stay in for the rest of the weekend. It’s very, very difficult to evaluate how much oil has been consumed in the course of a race, but it’s a very, very small amount. It’s not significant.”

Spectrometer analysis:
Analysing the oil is essential, because it might contain clues that there is a problem developing in the gearbox.

“We have a spectrometer, and that will identify wear metals that are in the oil. We’re not actually looking at the composition of the oil, or the performance of the oil, we’re just looking for contaminants in the oil. By looking at the wear metals we can determine where they come from in the gearbox, and if there is a problem, then I would enter into the discussion with the Williams gearbox specialist.”

Over the past 20 years hydraulic systems have become ever more important on Grand Prix cars, to the extent that failures will literally shut everything down. It’s essential that the systems are bullet-proof, and that’s where Castrol comes in.

“The hydraulics run virtually all the systems on the whole car, such as gear changing and engine control. So it’s a very, very important fluid. The hydraulic oil is based on a very high quality, super-clean aero hydraulic oil. It’s custom made, but as I said it’s based on an aero product, and uses very high quality raw materials. As you’d expect, our aero products are extremely high quality.

“Obviously the systems that are used in Grand Prix racing also require the highest quality oil, and they have to be very clean without any contaminants that could cause any problem, so we have to make sure that none of that exists in the oil.

“The hydraulic system will be filled and it will be purged to make sure that there are no air bubbles in there. And once it’s filled, it wouldn’t be topped up again unless anything is dismantled. For example, when there’s an engine change it will be purged and topped up to the right level at that point.

“Routinely we don’t analyse hydraulic oil on a race weekend. It’s very, very reliable, and we don’t run into problems in that area. The team tests its hydraulic systems at the factory, and if they have any needs or questions, or need an oil tailoring, that’s when we get involved. We work closely with them. The oil that we have is working very well at the moment, and there’s been no necessity to upgrade this season, for example.”

Not all about oils:
And that’s not the end of Castrol’s involvement in the team, which extends beyond oils.

“We also supply some very specialist greases. They are very, very high spec, and are frequently used in specialist industrial areas and the aero industry. Williams use them in various places on the car, such as linkages and suspension assemblies and that sort of thing. It’s an on off-the-shelf product, and it works very well.

“And away from the car itself, we also supply products that are used in the generators that are used on the grid and things like that.”

WilliamsF1 and Castrol – it really is a special partnership.