The saying goes, behind every great sportscar is a great engine, and behind every great every engine is great engine oil.
Okay, maybe that's not exactly how the saying goes. Close enough, though.
Mobil1's engine oil powers the engines of Porsche and Cadillac in FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA competition, plus Toyota in WEC as well.
The company has long-standing, deep corporate relationships with all three, according to Tomek Young, Mobil1's global motorsports technology manager.
'With Porsche, we've been working together for over 25 years. The same is true with General Motors. And with Toyota, we have a very long-standing corporate relationship,' he said.
But how exactly does Mobil1's engine oil protect and help engines from these three global manufacturers perform to peak standards?
'After the engine is sealed, [the engine oil] is the only element that you still control,' Young explained.
'Mobil1 offers protection to the engine. It lubricates, it separates surfaces, it protects the surfaces from wear from corrosion, from any adverse effects of combustion products.'
So, if the engine oil is one of the only elements that can be modified after homologation, what factors are considered by Mobil1's team of technicians when creating the perfect blend of oil?
'The stress is tremendous,' Young began. We are talking about these cars going close to flat out for very long periods of time.
'The distance of this race at Le Mans, an endurance race, is comparable to an oil change interval in a regular car.
'So you have this protection over prolonged period.
'Typically, durability, and protection of durability is top of mind, until you have durability.
'So when the engine is actually durable, everybody forgets. Everybody sort of relaxes. But as soon as durability becomes an issue, it's front and centre.
'Another element that's very important is fuel economy. And you know, that's so true. We are dealing with hybrid powertrains. Now we're working on improving efficiency. And this efficiency can be affected by oil. So, we work on solutions that provide extra efficiency. Another one that would be more hidden is heat removal and cooling of the engine.
'Through cooling you can affect performance of the car as well. Because their dynamic design in part defines the cooling of the car. If the oil can offer more protection, if you can affect the temperature of operation, you can also change their dynamic design to your benefit,' concluded Young.
Hybridisation brings extra challenges
Hybrid powertrains are now the norm in top class endurance racing, both in GTP in IMSA and Hypercar in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The engines in both LMH-rules cars, and LMDh cars like the Porsche, required Mobil1 to create new products to deal with the challenges and differences presented by hybrid engines.
'So these modern hybrid powertrains, that that are such a big part of the automotive industry, and big part of efficiency that we see,' Young said.
'They're unique, because part of the power now comes from an electric motor, at different parts of the cycle. The stress on the engine is maybe a bit different.
'We're also dealing with a lot of "start stop", including stopping the engine completely. This required our engineers to develop new type of products. So Mobil1 is now optimised for these hybrid powertrains, to make sure that this engine can run, for the regular consumer, pretty much indefinitely.'
There are differences for Mobil1 between the LMH and LMDh cars, too.
'Ultimately, the deployment of power by the combustion engine is what matters. And we're talking about a similar type of racing format. These cars are closely matched – the regulations force them to be as close in performance as possible. But for us as engineers, we have to look at the nuances so we're able to, ultimately, use to create some differentiation in performance.'
So, when you next see the Mobil1 logo on a Porsche – or another other racing car – remember how vital and crucial it is to getting a car to hit peak performance for 24 hours. It truly is the unsung hero of sportscar racing.
Feature image: Porsche / Juergen Tap