Maserati and Castor Oil - the 1954 Argentine Grand Prix

[taflach]

I'm currently researching the Maserati 250F and have been reading about its first race weekend at the 1954 Argentine Grand Prix. Because of the hot weather there were difficulties with the oil overheating and then frothing. I found an interview with their chief engineer in Motorsport Magazine about how they used castor oil to try to remedy this. He said he needed 30 litres that he obtained from going around all the pharmacies.

Now, the fuel makeup is listed as having 1% castor oil. Is this what they did with it, or did they add it to the oil? Castrol-R is oil with 0.7% castor oil. Interestingly Mercedes Benz used this oil in the W196 at the 1954 French Grand Prix.

It just seems that if Guerrino Bertocchi wanted 30 litres of castor oil, that this would be about the amount if they were going to use it unmixed instead of their usual oil.

Is this much simpler than it looks? It might just be that I don't know enough about oils and engines, though I know a lot more now than when I started to try to find the answer to this question!

Thanks
Jennie Mowbray

https://taflach.wordpress.com/