Hidden away inside Ferrari\u2019s garage is a small, well-equipped laboratory designed to support the team\u2019s on-track activity, staffed with chemists from Shell who are tasked with overseeing critical elements of the car each and every weekend.<\/p>\n
Located within the Ferrari garage, Shell\u2019s travelling trackside laboratory houses a mobile chemistry suite packed with high-precision instruments, humming software, and, on any given day, a pair of analysts testing hundreds of fuel and lubricant samples.<\/p>\n
Inside Shell\u2019s trackside laboratory<\/p>\n
To step inside the lab, as I did at the Circuit of The Americas, is to walk into a world where chemistry, engineering, and adrenaline collide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis laboratory goes around the world,\u201d explained Shell trackside analyst Lauren Singer, who has spent her three Shell traveling with Scuderia Ferrari HP. \u201cThe lab itself doesn\u2019t change, but the minute you step outside these doors, everything is different. The cities, the countries you go to, are so different.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Singer, landing here was as much destiny as it was design. She grew up with a love of chemistry, eventually specializing in energy-related chemical research at university.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a child and then moving into studying, I always liked to understand the reasons why,\u201d she said. \u201cChemistry answers those questions, or it leads you to the right place. So when someone says to you, \u2018why is the sky blue?\u2019, it\u2019s chemistry that can tell you the answer \u2014 or it can lead you to physics or mathematics.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that same about why things are the way they are is easily satisfied in the dynamic world of Formula 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn motorsport and especially in this role, you naturally have an element of problem solving, right? And in this role it\u2019s about finding why has the problem happened and then what is the solution we can find here on track,\u201d Singer explained. And all of it is taking place \u201cin this kind of high-pressure environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
For trackside analysts like Singer, the job begins early in the week. During a race weekend, she\u2019ll arrive on site on Tuesday, then begin setting up the lab in the Ferrari<\/a> garage. The container itself travels separately, and the analysts themselves bring the ultra-sensitive testing equipment to flesh out that empty box into a full-fledged laboratory that will become a hotbed of action almost immediately.<\/p>\n Before Ferrari ever fires up a power unit, Shell is already testing. Fuel drums shipped months in advance, from Hamburg to race circuits like Singapore or Austin, are sampled, catalogued, and compared to their original chemical fingerprints.<\/p>\n \u201cWe test the fuel every time it changes location,\u201d Singer explained, gesturing toward two tiny vials feeding into a chrome instrument that separates hydrocarbons with surgical precision. \u201cThe idea behind these machines is [that] they take a small amount of the fuel, they evaporate it, and they basically separate individual components. So it then tells you we have X amount of component one, Y amount of component two.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit like the fingerprint on your hand, and what we\u2019re looking for is that we have that overlap with the fuel which came from Hamburg. That\u2019s really important, because the fuel which left Germany is compliant with the FIA regulations.\u201d Once that fuel arrives at the track, it\u2019s critical to ensure that it hasn\u2019t been contaminated, and that it still complies with regulations.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the only time those samples will enter the machine, Singer explained.<\/p>\n \u201cWe test the fuel samples every time it changes location. We do it in Hamburg, we do it here in Austin in the storage container and the drums. Then we do it when they go into the machines, and then we do them from the cars. At every single point the fuel is moving, we take samples just to check again that there\u2019s nothing put in there \u2014 for example, a little bit of grease or a bit of dirt that\u2019s in the hose.\u201d<\/p>\n In the rare event that there has been some contamination, Shell\u2019s rigorous testing means its analysts know exactly where the contaminant was introduced, allowing it \u2014 or one of the teams it oversees \u2014 to make the necessary changes.<\/p>\n But while fuel is monitored for legal compliance, lubricant testing is the true heart of the lab\u2019s work. After every on-track session, Ferrari sends over fresh engine-oil samples so Shell can determine what\u2019s happening inside sealed components the team isn\u2019t allowed to open.<\/p>\n Singer pulled out two vials from her \u201cmagic drawer,\u201d one a golden fresh sample, the other darkened after just 100 kilometres.<\/p>\n More on the huge upcoming changes in F1 2026<\/p>\n F1 2026 tech analysed: The future of overtaking and biggest car advantage identified<\/a><\/p>\n