FEATURE
SPORT
FORMULA 1’S
GREEN FLAG
IT WAS FAMOUSLY DUBBED ‘THE MOST
POLLUTING SPORT ON THE PLANET’,
HOWEVER, OVER RECENT YEARS.
FORMULA 1 HAS TAKEN STEPS TO
CLEAN UP ITS ACT.
P
oor old Danny Ric. On
paper, it had all the
makings of a sporting
story to savour. His debut for his
new team, Renault, at his home
circuit – it could, and should, have
been so much better.
However, worryingly poor
performances in qualifying set
alarm bells ringing. From a grid
position of 12th, we all thought it
could only get better from there.
How wrong we were.
Mere seconds into the race, a
clip of a kerb and a lost front wing,
and Ricciardo’s race was over.
And while his second outing, in
Bahrain, lasted a bit longer, his
engine again didn’t see him
through to the chequered flag.
While Renault’s engineers will
be focused on the car lasting the
distance, the sport overall has
made great strides over recent
years to ensure it has longevity
and sustainability.
And it all starts with reducing
its environmental impact.
FORMULA 1: DESTINATION
GREEN
Formula 1 has traditionally been a
testing ground for engineering
and technology that may go
mainstream, and has, according to
one academic paper, come under
“increasing pressure to reduce
resource consumption and to
operate in an environmentally-
sustainable manner”.
44 GEMCELL.COM.AU JUN – JUL 2019
And so, for the past 10 years, as
well as competing on the track, F1
teams have been locked in a race
to be green.
Several measures have been
taken to help speed up this
process. The ban on mid-race
refuelling in 2010 forced
engineers to optimise chassis and
fuel tanks to use fuel more
efficiently. Kinetic energy
recovery from braking and
thermal energy recovery from
emissions was also introduced.
In 2010, the teams agreed on a
goal to significantly reduce
emissions over three years. Unlike
many similar agreements in the
wider world, this one was
achieved.
An audit in 2013 found that
teams’ carbon emissions had
decreased by 7%, and there had
been a 24% reduction in carbon
emissions from the cars
themselves.
THE V6 EFFECT
Subsequently, there was the
change from 2.4-litre V8 engines
to 1.6-litre V6 engines in 2014 –
which was unpopular with
traditionalists due to the
resulting quieter engines.
Dissenters beware, however, as
the V6s use 35% less fuel than
their souped-up counterparts.
Thermal efficiency has become
a major focus for F1 engineers
since the 2014 changes, and in
September 2017, during testing,
Mercedes became the first to
break the 50% thermal energy
efficiency mark. It’s quite a
considerable improvement from
the 29% maximum efficiency the
old V8 engines achieved.
With their turbo-hybrid
engines, F1 cars are now in
touching distance to achieve
thermal efficiency levels
similar to those used in larger
container ships.
In keeping with the notion of F1
engineers and manufacturers
using the GP circuit as part
mainstream testing ground,
Mercedes has used an incarnation
of its F1 engine in its Project One
road car, achieving a thermal
efficiency of 40%.
So, an enormous amount of
work is going on both behind the
scenes, and on the track to make
Formula 1 – and, in turn,
motorsport, and motoring more
generally – significantly more
energy efficient.