Formula 1 failing miserably to keep Max Mosley's green promises

Gas-guzzling Formula 1 teams put on a pathetic show compared with the green action seen elsewhere in motorsports

Fred Pearce, guardian.co.uk 14 May 09;

Indy racers in the US now burn up the track with biofuels. TT motorcyclists in the Isle of Man will try out electric bikes next month. But Formula 1? Despite some brash green promises a couple of seasons ago, the big boys of motor racing are still the carbon-guzzling petrolheads par excellence.

Back in 2006, the president of Formula 1's governing body, Max Mosley, promised a "green overhaul" for the sport. The new rules requiring green technology would be rolled out in time for 2009, he said.

Two years ago this week, he announced that the new rules would be voluntary until 2011. Last year, it emerged the final roll-out would not take place until 2013.

Max is trying, but the big teams are resisting. Meanwhile the planet warms.

One of Mosley's key ideas was to require cars to recycle energy generated by braking – a technology called kinetic energy recovery. With cars decelerating from 200mph to 50mph in a couple of seconds, there is considerable energy to be harnessed that is otherwise dissipated in heat and noise.

So far, four teams have taken up the technology. Ferrari used the system at Barcelona last weekend, but BMW dropped it; McLaren-Mercedes and Renault also trialled it at the start of the Grand Prix season. In any case, the purpose of energy recycling has turned out not to be exactly as billed. The brake energy is being stored in a battery or flywheel not to reduce fuel consumption, but to provide a quick power surge during overtaking manoeuvres and to come faster out of corners. Good fun for racers, I am sure, but not in the least bit green.

Out on the track, the most obvious sign of the "greening" of Formula 1 over the last two years has been the sight of Honda cars going round with a big map of the planet on the side.

But the "Earth Car" didn't prove such a success. Honda pulled out of Formula 1 over the winter. The website they once advised you to visit to check out their progress in greening racing cars now carries a goodbye message.

This all seems pretty pathetic compared with action elsewhere in motor racing. Indy cars in the US have been running on 100% bioethanol for several years now. But Formula 1 requires 5.75% "biomatter". Biofuels may be far from carbon-neutral, but Indy at least shows willingness and innovation.

Meanwhile, the TT motorcycle races on the Isle of Man this year will feature an all-electric Grand Prix on 12 June. Chris Goodall suggested in the Guardian a few months ago that Formula 1 should try the same thing. He tells me "it didn't gain any traction".

Even Formula 3 motor racing may be on the verge of a green revolution.

Perhaps you spotted the public unveiling last week of Warwick University's new "chocolate-powered" Formula 3 car. The car runs on biodiesel made from cocoa oils and is almost good enough to eat.

All the press said that, along with a steering wheel made of carrot fibre, a seat of soya beans and various other delights, the bodywork was made from potatoes. But even here greenwash creeps in. When I asked the car's inventor, Steve Maggs, about this, he admitted that while there was potato starch in the wing mirror casings, the bodywork was "still mainly carbon fibre".

He blamed the press who "don't let the facts get in the way of a good headline". But his problem is closer to home. The first paragraph of the university news release says the car "has bodywork made from potatoes".

Currently the green machine is ramping up its carbon footprint by being trucked round the circuits to show off its tasty lines. And that's the trouble really. Motor racing gobbles carbon just as it gobbles cash.

A formula 1 car emits about 1.5kg of CO2 for every kilometre it drives, about nine times that of a family car. And that's just the start, as its huge teams of mechanics, drivers and their kit and hangers-on tour the globe through the summer.

Back in 2008 at the Motor Sport Business Forum, Max Mosley declared: "It is necessary to demonstrate to society that F1 is doing something useful." Still waiting.