The ongoing issue of F1 being environmentally unfriendly has come up once again. This time the European Parliament has asked Formula 1 to change their rules so that environmentally friendly technologies like bio-fuels, four-cylinder engines or hybrid can be more easily applied in favor of more environmentally friendly technology.

This issue has been both a positive and a negative for me over the years. I remember the times where teams had their own labs where they concocted bizarre fuel formulas to make their car faster. Well, sure, the result in many cases was more speed, but every time a car was started, billows and billows of who knows what chemicals were injected into the atmosphere. Not only was this a serious environmental issue, it was as we know, a serious safety issue because of terrible pit fires and horrendous fires in crashes.

Car parts were constructed in those days (and still are in some cases) that had no way of being recycled and were just dumped without care for the environment. Thankfully these day are for the most part over and Formula 1 is on a path, although a shaky path at promoting the environment by their own practices.

Yes progress had been made, but it has only been made with rule changes and not with open arms. Millions and millions of dollars are spent on F1 cars each year voluntarily and concentrate on speed and performance without much regard to efficiency. Marketing certainly covers this investment so spending a fraction of that on cleaner cars should be adopted much more easily, but when rules are introduced forcing teams to incur an initial cost to change to something more environmentally friendly, there is alway opposition.

Just a year ago, Honda came under fire from many environmental groups for sporting the new ‘earth’ livery. Greenpeace being one stating they had no business promoting the earth when their F1 business is a contradiction. Maybe this is one reason for the livery change, who knows.

I believe F1 is making significant changes to improve their image with the introduction of electronic energy recovery systems, bio-fuels, and smaller engines. Energy Efficient Motorsports, a division of Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry has begun development of their patented “Kinetic-energy recovery systems”, which will make it’s F1 debut in 2009. With all this, F1’s image remains suspect amongst the general public and will remain that way probably forever, even with more changes to be introduced in the coming years. What I don’t believe is that F1 on a whole are making significant changes quickly and efficiently. R&D is a big part of F1 and money and recourses are there to undertake more changes to promote a cleaner environment.

Formula 1 is where a lot of new developments to the cars we drive come from, so if F1 created an image of being a leading authority in environmentally friendly racing, the cars we drive would follow suit more sooner than later. This is exactly what the European Parliament are suggesting.

I applaud the European Parliament for bringing more rule changes into the picture. The report (CARS 21) is critical of F1 and was unanimously adopted with a vote of 607 yes vs. only 76 against. This is fairly significant in that the voters live in our society and not the F1 society.

Here is part of the statement:

“The House therefore asks the FIA and others involved in formula one to change their rules accordingly, so that environmentally friendly technologies like bio-fuels, four-cylinder engines or hybrid can be more easily applied.”

The reaction from the FIA was swift on this with Max Mosely happy that the European Parliment recognizes their role, but his statement was too political for me:

“It is immensely satisfying that the European Parliament recognizes motor sport’s role in developing environmentally-friendly technologies and supports the work undertaken by the FIA in its campaign to make motoring more sustainable in the future.

“With the support of the motor manufacturers competing in Formula One and with the engineering expertise unique to the sport, the new technical regulations will accelerate the introduction of energy-efficient technologies into the domestic car market.”

I hope that if a new attitude is developed in F1, and a more positive public image follows, maybe I wouldn’t be more apt to laugh at hybrid cars. Currently I own 2 BMWs and I shake my head at their fuel efficiency and the lack of effort put into real green cars. There is of course a lot more to this issue and the world at large needs to follow suit if any real effort is to be put into green technology.

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