Sustainable Motorsport Round-Up for March 19, 2022-WEC Goes 100% Renewable

More exciting developments to report on in this week’s Sustainable Motorsport Round-Up. This week I look at the WEC as they kick off their 2022 season with their brand-new sustainable racing fuel, Jaguar debuts a cool new energy storage unit that uses old Jaguar I-Pace batteries, new sustainability tenders from Motorsport UK and more exciting sustainable motorsport news.

• With the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the WEC kicks off their new season with all cars powered by 100% Excellium Racing 100 which contains no fossil fuel. Instead it is produced using grape residues from wine production to cut CO2 emissions by at least 65%. “Sourced entirely within the circular economy and without a single drop of oil, this biofuel draws its energy from the recycling of residual biomass from the wine industry. Excellium Racing 100 will be made available to all teams at every round of the 2022 WEC season.” This change in fuel has required Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and its engine supplier Pipo Moteurs to work on “modifications” to their LMH engine to suit the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new sustainable fuel.

• Jaguar Land Rover has partnered with energy sector specialist Pramac to develop a portable zero-emission energy storage unit that utilizes second-life Jaguar I-Pace batteries. The first use of the units has been to power the company’s Formula E team’s trackside data center and provide auxiliary power to the pit garage.

• Porsche is the first to test the new spec prototype LMDh and GTP spec energy recovery system that will be used by all category cars in 2023. As RACER reports “Combined, the Bosch motor generator unit and Williams battery will work with the various internal combustion engines in the LMDh/GTP formula to reach a peak of 680hp.”

• Mercedes AMG has introduced their revised AMG GT4 for the 2022 season and it includes some interesting sustainability enhancements. According to Mercedes AMG “a front apron made of natural fibre reinforced material replaces its predecessor reinforced by carbon fibre. During the production of the new front bumper of natural fibre reinforced material, the CO2 emission is lower than to date. As a result, the production process is environmentally friendlier.” Full details can be found from Mercedes Customer Racing here.

• Motorsport UK has announced two exciting new sustainability tenders. Their goal “is to help those running motorsport events in the UK to calculate their emissions, and to establish as a governing body the collective impact of all motorsport events across a typical year in motorsport. These are two objectives that form central parts of Motorsport UK’s wider sustainability strategy, which was published in 2021.” The tenders are for the following:
  • Developing carbon calculators for motorsport activities throughout the UK
  • Assessing baseline emissions for motorsport activities throughout the UK

• The FIA has announced that they have achieved a “new step forward” for the FIA Environment and Sustainability Commission. “One of the most significant steps forward has been the research, development, and production by the FIA’s Technical Department of a 100 % sustainable fuel, meeting F1 stringent specifications. From 2022, the FIA World Endurance Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship are using sustainable fuel, further assuring an alignment with the overarching FIA Environmental Strategy and a responsible and innovative motor sport. FIA Karting will also implement 100% sustainable fuel for all its championships from 2023 and work is underway for other disciplines in the coming years.”

• MotoAmerica boss Wayne Rainey tells Autoweek that they are evaluating an electric motorcycle class. “A few of the electric manufacturers have reached out to us, and some have sport bike heritage that would look the part, look like proper race bikes,” Rainey said. “So it’s something that we are exploring at the moment. There could be an electric class next year that we’re looking at. We had a manufacturer reach out to us this year, we couldn’t do it at all the events that we wanted, so we decided to delay it a year. But we think it could start happening next year.”

• The all-electric ERA Championship will be kicking off its inaugural season this May and Green Racing News has everything you need to know about the series.

• In what I think took many people by surprise, NASCAR has announced that they will be going to Le Mans in 2023 as the Garage 56 entry with the ACO insisting that it will have to run a hybrid powertrain. “NASCAR is known to be working on outfitting its Next Gen cars with a spec hybrid unit, similar to what will be seen in LMDh, in time for the 2024 season. A potential trial run at Le Mans, for a 24-hour race, could serve as a testbed for its development.”