While in 2022, F1 is experimenting with a mixture of fossil fuels and E10 fuel at 10 percent in the mixture, it has more audacious plans for the near future as it aims to be a fully sustainable sport by 2030. The next generation of F1 engines will use 100 percent sustainable fuel which will develop in tandem with various fuel companies which are part of the ecosystem. The plan is to help develop and manufacture sustainable fuel that will be first used for the world championship starting in 2026 and then scaled up for commercial use in consumer vehicles as well.
The 100 percent drop in fuel is a type of sustainable fuel that can be leveraged by an internal combustion engine with no modifications whatsoever. This will be a laboratory-created solution.
The new biofuel will need no engine modifications
"Will be laboratory-created, using components that come from either a carbon capture scheme, municipal waste or non-food biomass while achieving greenhouse gas emissions savings relative to fossil-derived petrol of at least 65 percent," said the F1 website.
Importantly, this new fuel will also not cause any loss in performance as it will match the energy density of the current fossil fuel-based petrol - which means the cars will be as fast as they are today.
"It's estimated that there will be 1.8 billion cars on the road by 2030, with only 8% of those pure Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) - while internal combustion engines will continue to be essential to air and sea travel, as well as to the haulage industry. By spearheading the development of 100% advanced sustainable drop-in fuels, Formula 1 can play its part in making an enormous impact on the global transport sectors' greenhouse gas emissions," said the official F1 website.
F1 wants to retain the same amount of power as well
Additionally, Pat Symonds, the chief technical officer of F1 revealed that ARAMCO and F1 are on track to achieving a 100 percent sustainable fuel.
"The thing that sets the targets is simply finding enough of the products that we need. There's plenty of ethanol around, it's easy to put that in. But when you start to go into these more complex molecules, there's not that much around and that's why the middle of the decade is realistic," he said.
"Carbon capture is a method that actually we're quite keen on because it takes the carbon directly out of the air. It's in its infancy, but there are plants doing it; there's some in Canada, there's one in Switzerland that's quite large, there's some in South America that are quite large. So it is doable, and I think in 20 years' time, actually there'll be quite a lot of it around. But it is very, very experimental," he added.
