Fuel, Flow & Efficiency

You might assume more fuel means more power, but the rules cap the fuel-flow rate — the maximum amount of fuel that can reach the engine each second. That limit is precisely why the sport pushes so hard on efficiency: with flow fixed, the only way to make more power is to extract more from every drop.

There is also a limit on how much fuel a car may use in the race, so fuel becomes part of strategy. Drivers are sometimes told to lift and coast — ease off the throttle before a braking point — to save fuel or cool the PU, trading a sliver of lap time for finishing the race within the allowance.

The fuel itself is now a performance and sustainability frontier. Running a fully sustainable fuel — made from non-fossil sources rather than crude oil — the manufacturers must wring the same energy from a “greener” blend, and the lessons feed directly into road-car fuels that work in ordinary engines. A dedicated fuel-flow sensor polices the flow limit continuously, so there is no hiding a few extra grams per second.