Question regarding racing motor oil.

[Sharky]

I've been wandering about this for quite some time. Do racing cars (F1 in particular) use regular out-of-the shelf motor oil?? For instance....does the Mclaren team use regular Mobil one motor oil?? Or is there a particular motor oil???....or pehaps they add some aditive??

Just curious.

[desmo]

McLaren says that the Mobil 1 they use is exactly the same as the product you can buy at your local store.

[bobdrummond]

I'd doubt that it is exactly the same. The range of conditions encountered by a road car is considerably different to those that can be maintained in an F1 car. I would imagine it's a bit thinner to account for the tight tolerances of the engine and the fact that it doesn't encounter cooler temps.
As an aside, the teams must heat up the oil prior to starting the engine or else the seals will blow out!

[enzo]

I doubt highly that it is any different - todays synthetics are pretty good. I know for sure that CART engines use off-the-shelf oils.

All teams pre-heat the engines in order to get the running clearances to optimum, not to just thin the oil.

[bobdrummond]

I said they pre-heat the oil prior to starting the engines.
They do this by circulating it through a heater located in the overhead pit module. Quite different from warming the engine

[KC]

According to an article in Road & Track from Mobil's head lubricant engineer, the oil from the shelf is defintely not he same as what is raced in CART or F1. He said theuy use a special formula rated below 00 weight for extra-low drag and hihg rpm flow. He could not go into specifics on the formula used, but said it would never work in a road car because of the engine life issue.