More than 80 per cent of the new cars sold around the world last year were petrol guzzlers, and Pat Symonds reckons that should be a reminder to anyone who thinks electric vehicles can single-handedly get the world to net zero by 2050.
More than 400,000 patrons are expected to walk through the Albert Park gates over the four-day event, and Symonds says the sport had to act on its carbon footprint to keep those fans.“This was something we needed to do to protect our future,” he said of the plan to switch to carbon-neutral fuels. “For many, many years, it has been a technology competition as well as a driver competition,” he said.
Synthetic fuels and biofuels shape as a likely solution for the Formula 1 teams; biofuels are made from plants or organic matter that have previously sucked carbon out of the atmosphere.While biofuels still require combustion and release of carbon emissions, they are considered carbon-neutral because the carbon was first extracted from the atmosphere before it was made into a fuel.
The world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, is one of Formula 1’s biggest sponsors and supplies oil and lubricants to the Aston Martin team.that its research and development for the 2026 fuel rules was focused on making green hydrogen then synthesising it with captured carbon.
“We believe synthetic fuels have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing internal combustion vehicles by at least 70 per cent on a lifecycle basis compared to conventional fuels,” said the Aramco spokesman.