Quote:
Originally Posted by grantp
Tyrrell.
But I thought it was indeed ballast in order to make sure they were not underweight at the end of the race.
I wouldn't have thought that lead in a foam tank would make much difference for the few minutes it would be in there after re-fuelling.
Whether Williams or others also employed the same ideas at some point I have no idea.
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Thinking back , you are right , it was Tyrell.
I think it was played down at the time to try to deny that they were running very high compression engines which needed higher octanes than were allowed under pump fuel rules .
But lead pellets were used in WW2 for fighters that were shipped to Russia .Merlin engines needed high octane fuel , which the Russians had very little .
So lead pellets , [ possibly plus some other metals ] were used in the fuel lines / tanks which raised the octane rating high enough for the engines to work .