After delivering back-to-back innovations in fuel grades, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has now set sight on the Grand Prix and will, in the next three months, start producing fuel used in adrenaline-pumping Formula One or F1, motor racing. Its chairman, Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, said that the firm's refinery at Paradip in Odisha will produce the petrol used in F1 car racing in three months.
IOC, the country's largest oil firm controlling roughly 40 percent of fuel market share, will be the first Indian company and only a handful globally to produce fuel used in F1 racing.
Vaidya said the company expects to get its Formula 1 fuel certified in around three months, after which it will start competing with other global majors like Shell to supply it to the F1 teams.
F1 fuel is essentially high-octane petrol and the standards are heavily regulated by the global motorsport governing body Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) on various counts, including permissible additives and blending agents.
In October last year, the IOC helped India join a select league of nations when it began producing highly specialized 'reference' petrol and diesel that are used for testing automobiles.
There are only three suppliers of reference fuels globally, including US giant Chevron. IOC's Paradip refinery in Odisha produces 'reference' grade petrol and its Panipat unit in Haryana produces similar quality diesel.
Prior to this, Indian automobile manufacturers had to use imported reference fuel for testing cars and motorcycles. Now, IOC is supplying them with the same grade of fuel at a much cheaper cost.
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