Mobil and Petronas in Formula One

Good morning readers. Today, I am going to talk about Mobil and Petronas' involvement in Formula One.

Some people will think about Mobil and Petronas' involvement in Formula One and how they create the Formula One World Champion, with championship winning engine.

Well, in the past, Mobil had appeared in Formula One Grand Prix from early time, but appeared as only in billboard in Formula One circuit. In 1978, Mobil sponsored the first Formula One team, Williams F1, to promote Mobil fuels and motor oil and being supplier. Under Mobil sponsorship, Williams F1 had three Formula One world champion, Alan Jones from Australia, Keke Rosberg, A Finnish Swede, and father of Nick Rosberg, and Nelson Piquet the French Brazilian. Under Mobil partnership, Williams had created three world driver champions and and four world constructor championship, by Williams, before switched to Elf when Renault was introduced. From 1987 to 1992, Mobil also sponsored Benetton Formula (the predecessor of Renault F1), and also Lotus Mugen Honda in 1994.

Some people will ask about Mercedes-Benz and Mobil relationship. Mercedes-Benz had no relationship with Mobil until 1995, when Mercedes-Benz started as engine supplier to McLaren, one year after Mercedes-Benz returned to F1 as engine supplier for Sauber, using Castrol fuel. Under Mobil's strategic partnership with McLaren Mercedes using Mobil 1 lubricants, and Brawn Grand Prix (the fourth Tyrrell Racing descendant) in 2009, Mobil produced three world champion, two for Mika Hakkinen from Finland, one for Lewis Hamilton and one for Henson Button, both from United Kingdom. Under Mobil and Mercedes-Benz partnership, Mobil also produced two world constructor championship, by both McLaren and Brawn GP.

In 2010, major changes in Formula One began when Mobil became not only official race fuel for Mercedes, but also Petronas, thanks to the return of Mercedes AMG F1 as constructor for 55 years absent since 1955, when Mercedes-Benz retired from F1 due to 1955 Le Mans disaster that caused the death of Frenchman Pierre Levegh and 83 spectators. During the year, both Mercedes and McLaren used same nation drivers until 2013. While Mercedes work team uses Petronas, Mercedes engine customers used Mobil fuel until 2014. In 2012, Mercedes Grand Prox converted to Mercedes AMG F1, to symbolize 45 years of Mercedes-AMG in 2012, and the first win in Mercedes-AMG F1 was completed by Nico Rosberg in Shanghai. In 2013, Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes-AMG F1,and started his successful career and rivarly with his teammate, Nico Rosberg, that they met when they were boys. In 2014, Petronas started sponsoring Mercedes-AMG customer team to Force India, though Mobil still sponsored to McLaren Mercedes for last year before McLaren started using Honda engine in 2015, while Petrobras supplied Williams until 2016. From 2015, Petronas supplied Lotus Mercedes (Renault Sport F1's predecessor) and Manor Grand Prix in 2016, effectively terminated stereotypes of Mobil being only fuel for Mercedes-Benz F1 engine.

Thanks to strategic partnership of Mercedes-AMG F1 and hybrid turbo power, Mercedes-Benz AMG F1 produced hat trick world drivers and constructor champions, 2 for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016. Nico Rosberg retired five days after winning his title, and subsequently replaced by Valtteri Bottas, a Finnish army corporal and undertaker's son, whom his mother is undertaker while his father owns a cleaning company firm. Due to the highly success of Mercedes-AMG and Petronas partnership, Petronas started supplying Primax race fuel and Syntium and Tutela lubricants for factory team and customer team, including Williams, replacing Petrobras, in which Petrobras no longer sponsored F1, due to corruption scandals including former Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, a Slavic-Brazilian, before being impeached on August 31, 2016. Lebanese Michel Temer replaced Rousseff as recent president of Brazil.

Well, speaking of Mobil, from 2014, Esso and Exxon also appeared on McLaren on different location, when Esso brand was used worldwide along with Mobil 1, Mobil also appeared in Australian Grand Prix, while Exxon was appeared in Texas, United States. This is common thanks to the merger of Exxon and Mobil in 1999, when Exxon and Mobil signed USD 73.7 billion merger agreement in 1998, while Exxon also acquired Mobil's assets, including Mobil 1 and Speedpass. There is no Esso in United States due to the change of brand unified for Esso, Enco and Humble Oil in 1972, where Exxon is common in New Jersey, Atlanta, Texas, Washington DC , the capital of United States, and etc., though Mobil is appeared in California, New York, and etc. From 2017, ExxonMobil switched to Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, making the first non-Total SA fuel supplier for Renault engine since 2000, where Agip was used from 1997-2000 in Benetton F1, using Renault engine, in which it was badged by Playlife, a Benetton's sporting brand, in 1998-2000. Agip was also used in Ferrari from 1974-1995, before Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996, when Shell returned to Ferrari in 1996. Ferrari also used Petronas in Sauber from 1997-2005, before being bought by BMW and returned to Ferrari in 2010, using Shell V-Power, just as Scuderia Ferrari does. Under Esso and Mobil brands, ExxonMobil redeemed success from the McLaren Honda's failure in 2015-16, before switching to BP Ultimate race fuels and Castrol Edge from 2017, just as Renault Sport F1 does, when Total left F1 after 2016 season. Under the use of Esso and Mobil's Synergy race fuels, Red Bull has three Grand Prix winners. The first Esso race fuel winner is Daniel Ricciardo, whom he won in 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prox, and the second one was won by Max Verstappen, in last season of Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix, and he is the youngest one to do so. Though Esso is often appeared in Red Bull Racing, there are some exceptions. For example, in the United States Grand Prix, Exxon is used to replace Esso, while Mobil also appeared in Mexican Grand Prix, though there is no Esso and Mobil stations in Mexico. The first Mobil Synergy fuel F1 winner after 2012 is Max Verstappen, whom he wins in Mexican Grand Prix, though Lewis Hamilton is crowned as Mr Formula 1 2017, being the fourth time to do so, when he was finished 9the place after taking over Fernando Alonso's place. Esso and Mobil also appears in Toro Rosso from 2017, and still in 2018 and beyond when Toro Rosso uses Honda engines when McLaren decided to switch to Renault engine from 2018, using BP Ultimate race fuel.

From this article, I believe that Mobil and Petronas can be very successful in Formula One, if they have strategic partnership, when I realized that both Mobil and Petronas are Mercedes-Benz winning fuel, while Petronas is highly recommended Formula One race fuel for Mercedes-AMG F1 engine from 2014, thanks to the success of factory team using Petronas race fuels, removing stereotypes of Mobil and Mercedes-Benz in F1. I believe that one day, Mercrdes-Benz can rule the F1 along with Petronas to improve strategic partnership.

This is Manuel Smith, a Formula One fan, signing off.