Feature
Pushing to the limit on 100% sustainable fuels – Why Melbourne was a big Milestone in F3
Melbourne marked the first race weekend in which the 100% Advanced Sustainable Fuels by Aramco were in use in both the FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championships.
The development of the fuel has been ongoing in the background all throughout 2024 alongside the brand new 2025 F3 car, which has proven to be popular amongst drivers and fans already.
After the opening weekend of the campaign, Technical Director Pierre-Alain Michot reflected on the journey to get to this point and the process of developing the fuel in partnership with Aramco.
“For this new season, we have worked with Aramco to make sure that their latest Advanced Sustainable Fuel was suitable with our expectations of the FIA Formula 3 Championship,” Michot explained.
“We have developed a new fuel to make sure that in terms of reliability and performance, we are where we expect to be.
“We use the same fuel on both F2 and F3 cars. The development of the fuel was done in parallel and planned to be introduced with the new spec F2 engine for 2025 which has direct injection implemented on the engine.
“Whilst doing that, we wanted to implement the 100% sustainable fuel, so worked through 2024 during the development phase of the new F3 car and on the F2 engine, just to make sure the fuel was behaving as expected.”
It has all been achieved by a concurrent development programme based on the numbers and data gathered at the track from the 2025 car, along with extensive work in the laboratory to find the ideal fuel specification that will be used this season.
“We tested a variety of specifications in the lab with Aramco, tested and validated on the Mecachrome dyno,” Michot continued. “We did endurance running, accumulating a lot of mileage and that was continuous throughout the development cycle.
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“We made accommodations for this new fuel, but that’s as we would have done for any other fuel. In the end, we have something that is in terms of performance and reliability, where we’d expect it to be.
“We’re happy with what we have come up with, and as we saw in pre-season testing and throughout the Melbourne race weekend, car performance is at the level it should be with Formula 3 cars.”
After the development work throughout 2024 and the winter break putting everything together, delivering the cars to the teams and getting started with pre-season testing, the 2025 campaign is now underway properly.
The integration of the new fuel has been seamless, with over 6000 laps completed during pre-season testing and every team able to build up their lap counts further across the Melbourne race weekend.
It was a big milestone for the Championship and one Michot says promises a great deal for the months to come, as teams battle to become the first Champions of this new era.
“This past weekend in Melbourne was very successful, as we saw some great racing in Formula 3 to begin this new era. We hope that it continues to be an exciting season, full of closer wheel-to-wheel battles and another tight Championship contest.”