Today, the term sustainability means more than making environmental progress. It has evolved into an overarching term that encompasses several different areas.
That can be seen in the World Rally Championship’s (WRC) holistic approach for its new sustainability strategy. Launched at SportsPro Live in April, the series’ Sustainability Roadbook outlines the series’ ambitions for the future, as well as guidelines for the championship to follow.
Sustainability has become an important focus for the motorsport industry, but WRC has been particularly proactive in creating its strategy. There was little to no input from its governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which so often sets an example for its championships to follow. Instead, WRC aligned its plan with the FIA’s overarching environmental strategy.
WRC presented its Sustainability Roadbook at its Beyond Rally forum at Exponor in Porto, which was held prior to the Rally de Portugal earlier this month. On top of environmental progress, the series is also prioritising social impact and technological innovation moving forward.
To find out more about how those key drivers informed the Sustainability Roadbook, BlackBook Motorsport spoke to executives at the WRC, the FIA, and the series’ fuel supplier P1 Fuels for a deeper dive into the strategy and the steps required to meet its goals.
#FormulaE – Season 10: FIA #GirlsOnTrack goes global! 🌎👧
— FIA (@fia) December 11, 2023
1,650+ local girls experience the thrill at every race, with one joining the victory podium ceremonies. 🏆
More than racing—it's a movement for inclusivity and empowerment. ⚡🏁https://t.co/qNWvlQ4Pzw
1. Driving social change
a) By improving diversity at governing body level
It’s no secret that motorsport is a male-dominated sport, despite being one of the few platforms in the world where men and women can compete on a level playing field. However, what it does lack is equal opportunities, which makes social progress a key driver of any sustainability strategy.
Delivering that change falls within the remit of the FIA’s sustainability and diversity and inclusion officer, Sara Mariani, who is aware that it is important that the governing body sets an example.
“Our presidential team has a priority that is including more women in the governance of the FIA,” she explains to BlackBook Motorsport. “Within my department alone, Burcu Cetinkaya is the president of the women in motorsport commission and Nathalie McGloin is the president of the disability and accessibility commission.
“We have three commissions, so two out of the three presidents are women, and the vice president of sustainability and D&I committee, Jessica Runicles from Motorsport UK, she is another woman.”
For Mariani, it is important to have different perspectives, especially in influential, decision-making positions. Having that diversity of thought at boardroom level ensures the organisation can continue looking to the future without being hamstrung by archaic ways of working.
b) By improving diversity at WRC
While the governing body attempts to set an example, it’s important that the championships it sanctions are also making progress, especially considering their greater visibility.
According to Mariani, motorsport has neglected young girls and women for too long, but the building blocks are being put in place for a more diverse future.
“The Girls on Track programme exists since 2018, so it’s been there for a while, and now we are also looking at expanding that scope to maybe look at other projects,” she says.
“We are trying to create a bit of momentum around the careers that exist in motorsport, for example for the engineers, and I think this could be the next evolution of what the FIA has been doing with the Girls on Track [initiative].”
WRC is looking to take similar steps that will support social progress with the creation of the Women Accelerator programme. Plus, WRC can point to Michèle Mouton, arguably the most successful female racing driver of all time, as one of the sport’s icons.
“The Women Accelerator programme will be a very visible [initiative],” outlines Mariani. “In rally, it could bring results faster than other series because, from a physical point of view, rally is more approachable for women.
“There can be even more roles, because you have a team of two people – a driver and a co-driver. You can actually increase the number of females in a very rapid way.”
2. Promoting technological innovation
a) By using motorsport as a platform
It’s easy to forget that motorsport series are as much marketing platforms as they are sporting competitions. The sustainable fuel being used in WRC is a prime example of this.
P1 Fuels began supplying the series in 2022, making WRC the first FIA championship to be powered by 100 per cent fossil-free fuels.
According to P1 Fuels chief executive Martin Popilka, the opportunity to test the company’s product in a demanding series like WRC is invaluable.
“The ability to actually develop our products and technologies around the very demanding conditions these cars are operated in [attracted us],” he explains.
“These rally cars [compete] from the safari of Kenya up to the sub-freezing temperatures of northern Sweden. It gives us a great platform to make sure that the fuels we develop work in very demanding conditions.”
The visibility gained from being attached to a global championship is also key for the German supplier to achieve its goals.
“Our company’s aim is to bring these fuels to the 1.3 billion cars that are on our roads today [that] rely on fossil fuels,” Popilka continues. “If we don’t get rid of these fossil fuels, and replace them with fossil-free gasoline, we will never reach our climate targets.”
b) By exploring real-world applications
Road relevance remains a key focus for motorsport series, especially when trying to capture the public’s imagination. In short, no one will watch a championship that refuses to keep pace with the direction of the wider automotive industry.
The motorsport and automotive industries go hand in hand. Motorsport is so often an arena in which new technologies can be trialled and refined.
After all, combustion engines won’t disappear when the ban on new petrol and diesel cars is rolled out in 2035 in the UK and the European Union (EU), so it’s important to find an environmentally-friendly solution for those types of challenges.
Through the platform of WRC, P1 Fuels has even started to evolve its sustainable fuel for further uses, not just on the road.
“Avgas [aviation gasoline] is being phased out [for helicopters], and the whole industry is looking for alternatives that could function in these engines without modification,” Popilka expands. “We were working with this company for the past year to make sure that the fuels work, and they decarbonised their helicopter just by changing the fuel.”
The potential is limitless and could even benefit WRC through the decarbonisation of the production helicopters used to broadcast its stages.
Michèle Mouton will retire from her role as @fia Safety Delegate at the end of 2024 – Last Sunday she took time to say goodbye to the fans in Portugal ❤️#WRC | #RallydePortugal 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/wokysGOJF3
— World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) May 17, 2024
3. Maintaining environmental progress
a) By reducing the championship’s emissions
It’s easy to make ambitious statements about sustainable progress, but the majority of carbon emissions produced by most motorsport series continue to be related to their logistics. Addressing that impact must be a priority for all championships with a sustainability strategy, and that is front of mind for Santiago Peña Gómez, sustainability manager for WRC Promoter.
“Above 80 per cent of our total championship emissions come from logistics,” he says. “The calendar of WRC, if you compare it with other championships, is still short. We have 13 rallies today, which is something that I think can go up to 14 or a max of 15, but this is absolutely crucial.
“One of the challenges…is not only optimising the calendar, but also to find more sustainable logistics solutions for all the teams. From our side, we did it on TV production since 2019. Rally Mexico last year was the very first event that we produced remotely from a post-production office in Helsinki.”
WRC is helped by the fact that the majority of its races are in Europe, which means it can rely a lot more on road and sea freight than other global championships. But the potential to maximise environmental efficiencies is much greater thanks to the makeup of its calendar.
b) By having an impact beyond the world of WRC
The point of WRC launching its Sustainability Roadbook is not to gain an advantage over other motorsports. In fact, Peña Gómez wants this document to inspire not just other motorsport series, but sports around the world.
In his view, sustainability should be a collaborative effort, rather than an area where series feel they need to compete. Peña Gómez believes that series too often go above and beyond their capacity in order to promote themselves as ‘green’.
“My opinion is that, among world championships, we should take sustainability as a pre-competitive aspect,” he explains. “I feel that sometimes [sustainability] statements are pushed so far…of course you want to attract better sponsors, you want to align with the purpose of what you do, which is great.
“But I think if we shared more of what we do, it would be a very good achievement for motorsport as a community…we have many of the same challenges.”
Not only can WRC influence other motorsport series, it can have a positive impact on its stakeholders, too. As it looks to the future, it hopes to use the FIA’s three-star environmental accreditation as a yardstick to judge all those involved in the championship.
“By 2027, not only the teams but all suppliers and event organisers [in WRC should] get three stars by 2027,” says Peña Gómez. “This is something not only for WRC, but for ERC [European Rally Championship] and World Rallycross as well.”
The hope is that this clear strategy will lead to progress being made in all areas, start to shift negative perceptions around motorsport as a gas-guzzling pollutant, and promote a brighter, greener future.
These interviews were taken from a wide-ranging discussion about WRC’s sustainability strategy on the ground at Beyond Rally. Click here to listen to the full podcast.