How thirsty is a Formula One engine?

We can take it as read that the drivers use their engines to the max (if not, then they’ll soon be out of Formula One employment). But, within this accepted premise that drivers push their engines to the limit, the fuel mileage of a Formula One car can still vary considerably. What kind of mileage a Formula One car gets depends upon a couple of things:

• The nature of the track: A track that requires a lot of braking from high speed down to slow – and lots of accelerations back up again – makes the cars consume more fuel than does a track with a more flowing nature, where speeds are more constant. Also tracks with lots of corners make the cars run more downforce through altering the settings of their wings. This costs aerodynamic drag on the straight, and that hurts fuel consumption.
• The engine settings: The team can alter the fuel/ignition settings from the pits via telemetry. Sometimes they do this to help a driver eke out an extra lap or so before a pit stop; sometimes they make changes just to play it safe when a driver’s race position is under no threat.

Given these qualifications, we can say that the fuel consumption of a Formula One car typically varies from around 3.5 mpg (miles per gallon) up to around 4.3 mpg.