TLT: Please describe your job.
Liow: PETRONAS is the title sponsor and technical partner of the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS Formula One team and supplies all the fluid technology in the cars, including fuel, engine oil and functional fluids such as gearbox or hydraulic oil. My job as a PETRONAS trackside fluid engineer (polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE) can be categorized into two major parts: quality control and used oil analysis. Along with my colleague, we support our partner and its customer teams at every race.

We typically start work on the track on the Tuesday before the race. Aside from setting up and calibrating our lab equipment, we test all fresh fuel and engine oil to ensure that we are within the right specification before filling the cars. We do this to understand if there has been any contamination during handling and transport of the fluids and to verify that they are in compliance with Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) regulations to avoid disqualification.

Once cars are allowed to be fired up, typically on a Thursday, we analyze a baseline sample of engine and gearbox oil from each car. Based on wear elements in the oil, we can deduce if the power unit (PU) and gearbox are in a healthy state ready for track use or if further investigation is needed. For engine oils, we also monitor the viscosity to ensure it is in the right window to begin a session. We work closely with engineers and mechanics from the team to detect potential issues on a microscopic level to prevent them from escalating into failures on track.

Finally, from Friday to Sunday, we analyze samples from the car before and after each session to collect data on viscosity and wear elements. Combined with mileage and consumption data, we can track the degradation within the PU and gearbox to alert teams if anomalies are detected.

TLT: How do you think oil analysis can help in a Formula One race?
Liow: As lubricants are a key interface with most subsystems, from the engine to hydraulic circuits on the car, oil analysis is a quick way to reveal potential issues. Additionally, due to sporting regulations, Formula One engines are sealed by the FIA. This not only prevents teams from replacing parts with restricted allocations but, as a side effect, makes inspections more cumbersome as they must be done without breaking the seals. These regulatory restrictions further accentuate the advantage of oil analysis as a fault detection mechanism. Combined with boroscopic inspections and sensor readings, teams can often narrow down issues and tackle them quickly.

While one-off analyses are useful to detect faults, performing them periodically adds even more value to Formula One teams. By using historical data to correlate cumulative wear of key elements to failure points, teams can predict the life of a system and extend mileage where possible. With new financial regulations introduced in 2021 featuring a cost cap, employing oil analysis to manage reliability also now has critical financial benefits.

TLT: What are some challenges you have faced in your job?
Liow: Despite having routines and standard procedures, different challenges can arise on any given weekend—some are anticipated based on the tracks we are going to, while others can be out of the blue. That said, one challenge that is always present is the race to deliver analysis results as quickly as possible, buying time for teams to make better decisions.

In terms of challenges we can anticipate, working at circuits in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi requires different methods to be used on our fuel analyzer to cope with the heat. Meanwhile, tracks in Monaco and Zandvoort, the Netherlands, where the paddock and garages are some of the smallest on the calendar, changes how we move around and the way samples are delivered from customer teams.

There also are plenty of unexpected challenges, especially when one of our machines suffers a fault in a country without technical support, and we have to diagnose and resolve issues. Fortunately, we travel with plenty of spare parts and have a logistics team that can quickly fly specific parts out to a race if needed. On top of that, regularly servicing our equipment is the best way to keep them out of trouble.


As lubricants are a key interface with most subsystems, from the engine to hydraulic circuits on the car, oil analysis is a quick way to reveal potential issues.

TLT: What tools do you use to monitor and analyze oil performance, and how?
Liow: There are three main types of machines we use in our lab to perform fluid analyses:
1. Gas chromatograph (GC). Our GC is used exclusively to test the fuels. In a nutshell, a GC measures the various components in a fuel sample by vaporizing it and passing it through a thin tube known as a column via a carrier gas (helium in our case). Each compound in the fuel separates and travels at its own rate through the column, giving us a plot of intensity versus time, which serves as the “fingerprint” for the fuel. 

Before a season starts, our Fluid Technology Solutions (FTS) team submits all fuel and oils for approval, and the FIA maintains a database of approved formulations. We compare the results of each fuel sample to its FIA-approved specification, checking for contaminants or anomalies. 

Despite using 2-mL sample vials, the GC only requires 1μL of fuel for analysis, and each test takes 30 minutes to complete.

2. Viscometer. Our viscometers are mainly used to test the viscosity of our engine oils. While the viscosity characteristics of our lubricants change based on temperature and shear rate, we typically use the kinematic viscosity at 100 C (KV100) as a key indicator for engine oil health. The viscometer houses a rotating test cell and a magnetic rotor, which can precisely measure drag forces transmitted by the sample, obtaining its dynamic viscosity. Additionally, a density meter downstream of the test cell measures the sample’s density, which is then used to calculate the kinematic viscosity.

As oil analyses often can be used to advise time-sensitive decisions (e.g., resume track running or retiring a car during a practice session), a short turnaround is key. Each cycle on the viscometer takes around six minutes to complete, thus, we have two viscometers in our lab to minimize any backlogs.

3. Spectrometer. Our spectrometer has been used to analyze various kinds of fluids, ranging from engine oil to the coolant for our energy recovery system (ERS). The sample is analyzed by burning it between a rotating carbon disc electrode and a carbon rod electrode. As each element emits a specific wavelength of light when energy is applied, the types of wear elements in the sample can be distinguished. Furthermore, the concentration of each element also can be measured based on the emitted light intensity.

On top of tracking wear in the engine and gearbox, our spectrometer also is useful to identify unknown fluids from leaks. Spectrometers are typically housed in labs with stable, controlled environments, yet ours travel around the globe to every race. To ensure accuracy and precision, our spectrometer is recalibrated at every event to account for changes in ambient condition and checked against the spectrometer back at the Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) headquarters in Brixworth, Northampton, UK.

TLT: What trends and challenges do you see for the future of oil analysis in Formula One?
Liow: With Friday practice sessions being shortened from 90 to 60 minutes since the 2021 season, it is ever more crucial to maintain a high level of precision in our used oil analysis since wear rate data is now more sensitive due to shorter mileages. We have been taking more steps to ensure that our equipment stays in a clean and controlled environment and that any drifts in calibration are addressed before they impact our results.

You can reach En De Liow at ende.liow@pli-petronas.com.