‘We need to develop every aspect of business to carbon neutrality’: Pat Symonds on F1’s challenge

Having made the switch to turbo hybrid power units back in 2014, Formula One developed its first-ever sustainability strategy in 2019 as part of a holistic environmental, social and governance (ESG) programme known as ‘We Race As One’. According to Pat Symonds, the series’ chief technical officer, the “ambitious” strategy broadly breaks down into two main pillars: the first is to have fully sustainable events by 2025, and the second – “the very tough one” – is to achieve a netzero carbon footprint by 2030.

“We had to set some pretty hard targets because we are such a public sport – and, you know, that’s a bit of a double-edged sword,” says Symonds. “I get quite upset when I see the words ‘gas guzzling’ right next to Formula One, and you see it so often in the popular press, when the reality is we’re anything but.

He adds: “Environmental sustainability is not just important to Formula One, it’s important to everyone. We’re not debating climate change anymore, that debate finished many years ago. The debate now is how to ensure that we are contributing to reducing climate change, contributing
to technologies that will help our planet.”

From an events perspective, Formula One’s strategy spans several key focus areas, from using sustainable materials on-site, eliminating single-use plastics and recycling all waste, to schemes designed to incentivise fans to use greener means of attending races.

Formula One is trying to encourage its fans to be more environmentally conscious at races

The longer-term goal of achieving net zero, meanwhile, encompasses targets relating to all facets of the series’ operations, including more
efficient logistics and travel, 100 per cent renewably powered facilities and factories, and sustainably fuelled hybrid power units in each of its race cars.

In 2018, Formula One’s estimated CO2 emissions stood at just over 250,000 equivalent tonnes. Of that total, some 45 per cent was generated by road, air or sea logistics, 27.7 per cent was attributed to business travel, including air and ground transportation, and 19.3 per cent was produced by all F1- owned or operated offices, facilities and factories. Event operations, including broadcasting infrastructure, support races and Paddock Club hospitality, accounted for 7.3 per cent, with the fuel usage of the power units across all ten teams contributing only a fraction – less than one per cent – of the series’ overall emissions.

“I think what’s interesting is that, of course, we’ve got a big focus on the cars,” notes Symonds. “Now the cars on the track represent 0.7 per cent of our total carbon emissions. So you might say, ‘well, that’s not a terribly significant thing’. And of course, if you’re talking tonnes of carbon equivalent, it’s not. But if you’re talking about the message that we can get across, and in getting that message across the technologies that we can develop, and, more importantly, roll out to the general public, then you have a huge impact.”

Symonds explains that unlike other racing series that use standardised power units and a single fuel supplier, one of the unique challenges in Formula One is that the championship features multiple engine types and fuels. While 2022 will see the new generation of Formula One cars running on E10 fuel – which comprises a mixture of 90 per cent fossil fuel and ten per cent renewable ethanol – the series is aiming to introduce a new power unit by 2025, one which will run on 100 per cent sustainable ‘drop in fuel’ that can be used in a standard internal combustion engine without any modification to the engine itself.

With multiple fuel suppliers, Formula One’s bid to introduce more sustainable options remains a challenge

At present, Symonds and his team are engaged in discussions with several companies about creating the fuel in the quantities required for the
championship, as well as scaling up for mass production. The ultimate objective is to develop a laboratory-created, high performance fuel whose components come from either a carbon capture scheme, municipal waste or non-food ‘biomass’, and whose energy density matches that of Formula One’s current fossil fuel petrols.

“What we wanted to do is to find a sustainable fuel,” explains Symonds. “We wanted to find a fuel that was effectively a drop-in fuel, a fuel that could be used in vehicles worldwide, whether they be light vehicles, heavy vehicles, trains, trucks, aircraft, ships. There may be some slight changes to the fuel but the technologies that we developed to make these fully sustainable synthetic types of fuels will be very, very transferable.

“We have to bide our time a little bit but that gives us a really good opportunity to get it right. And I think when we introduce our sustainable fuel into Formula One, we really will, I hope, be promoting that competition, promoting the technologies, carbon capture. And, you know, it really will be a true contribution then.”

Part of the process of developing a truly sustainable fuel comes down to “understanding the full carbon trail all the way from cradle to grave”, says Symonds. “We’re not just looking at tailpipe emissions and things like that,” he adds.

“We need to work hard on things that are outside our control, and that’s a little bit more difficult.”

To that end, Formula One has engaged its global partner Aramco in its efforts, with Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company having been heavily involved in the development and testing of the sustainable fuel.

“When I started this project, probably early or during 2018, I had a bit of a job on my hands trying to persuade some people that this was something that could be done and something that we had to do,” recalls Symonds. “And I would even say that with some of the oil companies, there was some reluctance. But what’s been really enlightening, what’s been really gratifying, is that, over the time we’ve been talking about it, people have come on board like I can’t believe.

“Now we’re seeing our sponsors, we’re seeing our partners, they want this sustainability story. It’s important to them. And it’s particularly gratifying
that we’re seeing the oil companies on board with it as well. As you know, we have a global partner in Aramco [who] are being absolutely instrumental in this programme. That’s the largest oil company in the world who are putting really very considerable resources into a programme like Formula One.”

Despite its much-vaunted goals in sustainability, Formula One’s calendar is set to expand to a record 23 Grands Prix in 2022, with the globe-trotting series running from March to November. That swollen slate of races naturally means more travel, more extensive operations and greater carbon emissions. Still, Symonds insists the series is up to the engineering challenge of reducing its overall environmental impact even as its geographical footprint grows.

Despite the series' sustainability goals, Formula One is set to race in 23 locations in 2022

“The objective is to develop every aspect of the business to carbon neutrality,” he says. “Once you get to that, then it really doesn’t matter how
many races you’ve got. Ultimately, we have to do a bit of intelligent offsetting, not buying carbon credits, but actually contributing something to society to offset what we’re doing, and ideally doing it locally where we’re racing.”

Formula One’s focus on pioneering sustainable fuels for internal combustion engines, rather than pursuing outright electrification, may seem at odds with the broader motorsport industry and government policy. But with battery powered electric vehicles currently estimated to account for only eight per cent of the 1.8 billion cars predicted to be on the road by 2030, the series believes it can have an impact in advancing technologies for applications in non urban settings, such as heavy goods vehicles, trains and aircraft, where increased power is critical.

“I’m not totally convinced that electrification is the only answer,” says Symonds. “It is a very, very important part of the answer, there’s no doubt about that, and I think it’s probably the ideal answer in an urban environment. But I think what we will be always pushing is that’s not the only answer.

“There are multiple parts to a low carbon future and we need to be fully engaged in what those parts are. It doesn’t matter what they are, we just
need to be there, we need to be part of it. We will definitely increase our hybridisation. Our next formula will be maybe not exactly 50/50 internal combustion engine power and electrical power, but certainly not far off it. And by engaging in that sector of technology, we will push it forward.”

This feature was originally published in BlackBook Motorsport’s special report on sustainability, titled Racing with Purpose, in December 2021. Access the full report here.