IndianOil aims for F1 Grand Prix, eyes high-table entry for fuel

After delivering back-to-back innovations in fuel grades, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has now set sight on the Grand Prix and will in next three months start producing fuel used in adrenaline-pumping Formula One or F1, motor racing.

The firm's refinery at Paradip in Odisha will in three months produce the petrol used in F1 car racing, its chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said.

IOC, the country's largest oil firm controlling roughly 40 per cent of fuel market share, will be the first Indian company and only a handful globally that will 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 global motorsport governing body Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) on various counts, including permissible additives and blending agents.

IOC had in October last year helped India join a select league of nations when it began producing highly specialised 'reference' petrol and diesel that are used for testing automobiles.