F1 To Cut Carbon Footprint By 15%

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) is to unveil an analysis that projects an emissions cut of 15% in three years as the sport looks to curb its carbon footprint.

FOTA says the sport is the first to have a comprehensive and externally audited carbon reduction programme.

Further ambitions may include a doubling of energy efficiency in engines, which manufacturers hope would feed through into road cars.

The audit has been carried out by the consultancy Trucost, whose chief operating officer Richard Mattison stated: ‘We’ve been able to analyse all drivers of carbon emissions, from logistics right down to the engines themselves.

‘There’s a lot of data in teams – more so than in most businesses – and we were able to analyse it and see how and where they were going to make reductions.’

Running cars’ engines in races and testing accounts for less than 1% of the sport’s emissions, even though the cars run at less than five miles per gallon.

About half of the emissions are associated with items the teams buy in; other major sources are the transport that takes teams and equipment from race to race, and electricity, large slices of which are consumed by wind tunnels.

F1’s regular cost-cutting programmes include some measures that will also reduce carbon emissions; and Trucost calculates that plans already in place will cut emissions by about 15% from 2009 levels by 2012.

One option the FIA and engine manufacturers are considering from 2013 is increasing engine efficiency through limiting the amount of fuel that each car can use.

Backers point out that if this sort of design improvement materialised and was fed back into road cars, it could make curbing vehicle emissions significantly easier.

Meanwhile, emissions associated with travelling around the world from race to race could be tackled by rationalising the race calendar, with better co-ordination of segments of the season in Asia, Europe and the Americas.