ExxonMobil has announced it is expanding its technology partnership with the McLaren-Honda Formula 1 team, ahead of the 2015 season, to better incorporate its retail fuels brands.
ExxonMobil has been a long-standing official technology partner to McLaren, first providing race fuel and lubricants in 1995. In 2014, the Esso logo was featured on the car during select races in celebration of ExxonMobil and McLaren’s 20-year relationship. The 2015 season will see ExxonMobil fuels branding showcased on the MP4-30 car throughout the season.
ExxonMobil states that its decision to showcase its fuels follows last year’s introduction of the fuel-flow regulations. The technical team responsible for the development of this season’s fuel has been working closely with Honda to optimize product performance for the MP4-30 since late 2013.
ExxonMobil is keen to highlight that its race fuel is developed in the same technology center, in Paulsboro, NJ, USA, as the company’s advanced retail fuels formulations, and that the two share similar properties. The company believes that it is ‘this culture of leading innovation from race to road, that continues to help deliver better fuel economy to customers’.
“We are proud to have been official technology partners to the McLaren Formula 1 team for more than two decades,” said Alan Kelly, president, ExxonMobil Fuels and Lubricants Company. “In addition to providing full-time laboratory and trackside engineering support, we have been the exclusive fuel supplier since the beginning of the relationship.
“With Honda on-board as the new engine partner for 2015, and highly-experienced world champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso at the wheel, capably supported by test and reserve driver Kevin Magnussen, we are all focused on winning races. The addition of our fuels brands will provide us an opportunity to promote our Esso-, Exxon- and Mobil-branded fuel offerings to consumers this coming year,” he added.
“ExxonMobil technology and expertise has proven vital to race-winning performance throughout our relationship,” added Ron Dennis, chairman and CEO, McLaren Technology Group. “The team has worked extremely hard to optimize fuel and lubricant products around the Honda power unit. Extracting more power and fuel efficiency is a key focus, we are delighted to recognize ExxonMobil’s fuels technology contributions during the past two decades by welcoming the fuels side of the business as an official partner.”
