In an interview recently, Sebastian Vettel stated that if Formula One doesn’t change, it will disappear. He made the point that Formula One is not green, but with both the intellectual and financial resources of Formula One, it could be fundamental in bringing forward solutions. His point was that the current hybrid power units are marvellous technology but irrelevant to current road vehicles. His view was that Formula One should put its resources to making itself green or it will become irrelevant and die. “So that’s where I sit and say …. I don’t know what exactly the best solution is. But I feel we have to start doing it now, rather than discuss for another five years and, in the meantime, do five years of nothing.”
Sebastian is quite right. Motorsport generally and Formula One in particular, needs to do better. It is not enough to move over to a non fossil fuel solution, put their feet up and say job done. The current climate crisis requires more from us.
Where Sebastian perhaps over-estimates Formula One’s ability to achieve this change is not in their intellectual ability to come up with technical solutions, but rather in their capacity to adjust their assumptions and remodel their world view.
In Brazil 2021, after their introduction in 2014, Formula One unveiled a special logo for their hybrid power units. After years of complaining and apologising for developing a power unit of ground breaking efficiency, they have, in the final hours, realised that they should have been embracing and promoting it. This is the state of the Formula One Management thought process.
Last month Formula One produced this: https://corp.formula1.com/formula-1-plans-for-100-sustainably-fuelled-hybrid-engine/.
The plan proposed is for a new generation of power units in 2025 with the aim of developing a 100% sustainable drop in fuel.
A drop in fuel is a fuel that can be used in current internal combustion engines without modification.
Ferrari F1 fuel barrel.
This is important because the world is populated by cars with internal combustion engines, not to mention other forms of transport.
Firstly, the ideas in the video are good and the direction of travel is positive and relevant to the challenges faced by the car industry. The problem is that in this video they make mention that they are pioneers. Well, they used to be. The fact is that pioneers lead the way but Formula One is playing catch up. This is a programme that they should have been thinking about and planning for over a decade at least. By the time Formula One launches the programme in the press release they could already be irrelevant. Formula One is behind Formula E and Extreme E (Electric vehicles), World Touring Car Cup (sustainable biofuel), World Endurance Championship (100% renewable bioethanol based fuel), World Rally Championship (fossil-free hydrocarbon-based fuel from 2022) and IndyCar uses a racing fuel that is 85% ethanol (E85). There are new electric series such as ERA (Electronic Racing Academy) and RX2E as part of the World Rally Cross series. SRO will run GT Experimental events in 2022 to demonstrate the capabilities of hydrogen and electric GT racing cars. Toyota and Mazda were recently competing in a 3 hour event in Okayama showcasing vehicles running on carbon-neutral propellants to be used in current engines. These are the pioneers, not Formula One.
Where Formula One has the advantage over these other series is in its high global profile. No other racing series has the coverage and global fanbase of Formula One. This should not be taken for granted, however. With the climate emergency upon us and no longer a theoretical future event and with the Covid 19 Pandemic still raging as cases in Europe surge and global deaths have surpassed 5 million souls, Formula One, like all of us, is living in a new world. It is a divided world, facing an existential crisis. Like everyone else, the management of Formula One are going to have think long and hard about how they respond.
Formula One is seen by a great many people as being part of the problem. The focus in the final years of Ecclestone and in the era of the new management has been on glamour and entertainment. They see themselves presenting a world of aspiration, marked by conspicuous consumption and opulence. It has made itself into a shining citadel: a destination for only the very rich and powerful, out of touch and out of reach of the average person. It needs to come back down to Earth.
To be the pioneers they perceive themselves to be, Formula One needs more than new logos, gestures and future plans. Perhaps more importantly, Formula One needs to mean something again; it needs to be something more tangible than a travelling show. With the right plan going forward, Formula One could be a pioneer, not only in fuel technology but in reinvention and renewal in a climate conscious, post fossil fuel world.
If they don’t do this, then they leave a space for other motorsport series to fill.
As Sebastian Vettel says, they cannot take five years to figure this out.
By Clare Topic
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