The greenest team on the greenest grid. That’s how Envision Racing describes themselves and this week you will find out why. I also have analysis of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in electric motorsport, a technical analysis of a hydrogen combustion race engine and a test drive of the Porsche GT4 e-Performance.
All this plus much more in this week’s edition of the Sustainable Motorsport Roundup on Motorsport Prospects. Your source for sustainable high performance motorsport news.
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Sustainable Motorsport News
BlackBook Motorsport looks at how Envision Racing uses Formula E as a global platform for sustainability. The Race Against Climate Change (RACC) initiative has featured heavily on the team’s cars and away from the track, with the intention of hosting events that educate the Formula E audience about the benefits of living more sustainably.
“We had an idea to use [Formula E] to go deeper and talk about deeper subjects around electric mobility,” explains Filippi. “We will organise on-site events and have amazing speakers – really fascinating people – come to our events with an audience on-site, but also streaming online so anyone can access it.”
The Silverstone Circuit have been recognized as a Greengage ECOsmart Platinum Venue in acknowledgement of the sustainability initiatives they have put in place and the approach the Silverstone team have taken as they work to become a more sustainable business and leisure destination. The Greengage ECOsmart accreditation system supports over 400 venues and Silverstone is one of only 28 who have achieved Platinum status.
“Greengage focused on what we are doing here at Silverstone in terms of reducing our carbon footprint, supporting the local community, introducing water and waste management projects and our sustainable procurement processes. Of the many initiatives that we have introduced since launching our Shift to Zero strategy in July 2022, were particularly complimentary of our ambitious solar panel project which generates around 13% of the venue’s total energy from the roof of our International Conference and Exhibition Centre, the largest covered event space between London and Birmingham.”
Motorsport Australia has retained its FIA Environmental Accreditation Programme three-star level certification for its head office operations.
The FIA’s Environmental Accreditation Program is an initiative introduced by the FIA to help motorsport organizations around the world measure and enhance their environmental performance in order to facilitate improvements in motorsport sustainability worldwide.
Motorsport Australia first obtained its level three certification in November 2020 following a rigorous accreditation process that included a detailed evaluation of Motorsport Australia’s environmental management plan and its commitment to best practices and continual improvement.
A thorough audit was then conducted by the FIA in October last year, which determined that Motorsport Australia had continued to show strong commitment to environmental management and sustainability. The audit also indicated Motorsport Australia has hit its internal targets against energy usage, travel, and waste reduction.
Is Saudi Arabia taking over electric motorsports? That is the question James Morris at Forbes seeks to answer in his deep dive on the Kingdom’s sustainable motorsport investments.
“A lot of things shifted in Saudi Arabia starting from 2017, when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince started Vision 2030,” says His Royal Highness Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, Chairman of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and the Saudi Motorsport Company. “It’s a roadmap for Saudi Arabia and how to shift its economy and position in the world. It’s not healthy for Saudi Arabia just to rely on oil as the main income for Saudi Arabia. That’s why our first international event in Saudi Arabia was Formula E, sending a message that we’re thinking about the future and alternative energy.”
Jaguar TCS Racing have announced that 300 items of outdated team clothing have been donated to first year students at the fashion department of Coventry University “to repurpose outdated team kit for second life.”
The British outfit have said that the donation “minimises discarded clothing going to landfill, reducing waste and prolonging the life of materials”, adding that the garments will be used for “a variety of outcomes including repurposing and upcycling the items to create new garments, with the aim to donate the finished products to West Midlands charities once the project is complete later this year.”
SailGP has expanded its judging panel for its Impact League to include representatives from the football and motorsport sectors. Joining the panel are Kelly Simmons, former Director of the Women’s Professional Game at the English Football Association; Ellen Jones, Head of ESG at Formula 1; Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of inclusion charity Kick it Out, and Ryan Storr, Australian-based Co-Founder of the LGBTIQ+ sport charity Proud2Play.
The league’s aim is to embed sustainability action within sport, and 80% of SailGP athletes feel the Impact League has changed the way they behaved. Some two-thirds also said that the league had the potential to change the mindsets of fans on sustainability.
Salon Privé, an event that takes place at the UK’s Blenheim Palace and showcases some of the finest automobiles in existence, is becoming a B Corp. Amongst some of the initiatives they will be undertaking are:
- Being More Planet Friendly: we will maximise the positive impact we have on the environment by promoting more sustainable and ethical sourcing by using locally-sourced produce within our catering.
- We use waste reduction initiatives and minimise food-waste across our events. We do not use disposable packaging, nor sell any plastics.
- We use biofuel in our generators.
- Giving Back: We will increase our support for our chosen charity partners in 2024.
- Continuous Improvement: being part of the B Corp community means we will continually strive to improve our practices and to measure our social and environmental impact.
- Joining a Global Movement: we will be part of a powerful movement of businesses driving positive change.
Sustainable Motorsport Tech
Klaus Bachler leapt at the chance to try out the Porsche GT4 e-Performance when given the opportunity. As a race driver, the Austrian native of Styria races up to 25 weekends a year in petrol-powered GT Porsches. But when he talks about being one of the development drivers of the Porsche GT4 e-Performance, he especially likes to emphasize the word ‘privilege’. When asked what the biggest difference when compared to the Porsche combustion engine is he answered easily
“That’s clear – the performance. It is phenomenal. And then there’s this responsiveness. Of course, the electric motor emerges from a low engine speed immediately, it has an extremely high drag torque. With all this power combined with all-wheel drive – you also have to adjust your driving style.”
Second-generation driver David Ragan may not compete weekly in NASCAR, but he’s still very busy behind the scenes, most recently being involved with NASCAR’s development of its EV car. Ragan says it has some similarities to the current Cup car.
“But from the braking and the regeneration of the electric motors and the torque that the all-wheel drive car has, it’s pretty incredible the performance that it has,” said Ragan, who tested the car at Martinsville Speedway. “I was surprised that the couple of tests that we did went so well. When you design a new car from the ground up and you out-source parts from all around the world that’s a challenge.”
Engine Labs does a deep dive into AVL’s hydrogen-powered H2-ICE race engine. “Traditionally, these sorts of engines have relied upon an extremely lean burn rate for their operation, which needless to say hampers performance and makes longevity a bit of a crap shoot. Knowing this full well, AVL set to making its race engine far less of a “lean-burner,” and one that could match (or best) a comparable two-liter turbo racing engine in power output.”
Series News
As Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds says the series will “retain its DNA” and “be a street racing series” going forward, despite a recent influx of permanent facilities to the all-electric series’ calendar, he admits that they are looking at adding a second race in the United States.
“Obviously we’re in Mexico, we’re in Portland; I think the North American market — specifically the USA — can sustain another race,” Dodds said. “It will be nice for us to have two races going forward, and I think there are plenty of big, exciting cities to race in. There are many rumors circulating about a potential race in Los Angeles, rarely is there smoke without fire in motorsport,” he admitted. “I think Los Angeles will be an incredible venue to hold a Formula E race, particularly given the state of California’s focus on sustainability and environmental issues.”
Extreme E has extended its partnership with EY and lined up a new partner in Symbio ahead of its transition to Extreme H in 2025.
Ali Russell, Managing Director of Extreme E, said, “EY have been imperative in our work towards minimising our impact at race locations and leaving a lasting positive legacy. The new initiatives introduced in 2023 were a brilliant addition to race weekends as they help keep Extreme E at the forefront of sustainable impact. We are excited to collaborate once again in 2024 and build on the great progress we have already made together.”
In Extreme H, Symbio will provide a 75kW hydrogen fuel cell replacing the battery as the principal energy source. Green hydrogen sources will be used to power the Extreme H fuel cells, created using a combination of solar and water. This technology is already being used behind the scenes in Extreme E, where it provides the energy source to the vehicle’s batteries.
Russell, commented,“We are delighted to announce Symbio as our official hydrogen fuel cell provider ahead of our first season as Extreme H in 2025. This is an exciting transition for the championship, which has pioneered sustainable technology solutions since its inception. We cannot wait to go racing with Symbio next year in the inaugural campaign of Extreme H – the world’s first off-road racing series powered by hydrogen.”
There is concern in some quarters that the delays to IndyCar’s hybrid engine could prove problematic if introduced mid-season. “Graham Rahal said he didn’t “know how I feel about implementing it mid-season, but that’s a personal thing. I think it’s clearly the way of the future. It’s clearly the way Honda wants to go. So we need to make sure it happens.”
The 2024 season of RX2e is getting ready to start, but before it does, it’s time for the testing to warm up both drivers and cars. On February 15th some drivers had the opportunity to test the ZEROID X1 ahead of the season to prepare themselves for the fourth campaign of the RX2e Championship.
Clément Picard, Ellis Spiezia, Frank Coll, Kalle Gothesson Sara Kaluzinska and Vasileios Kyriazopoulos were the drivers that had the chance to be behind the wheel of the ZEROID X1 for the test day.
The test was distributed in ten runs where the drivers did four or five laps per run. After each one, they went back to the garages to recharge the car and analyze their video data from Vbox and to talk with the engineers about how they felt in the car and how to adjust it to their driving style and track conditions. This format allowed them to improve their performance as the day progressed and the track conditions improved. They all agreed that the car is “very fun to drive” and enjoyed their time on track.
New teams, new riders, new sporting format. Second season of the FIM E-Xplorer World Cup started in technology driven Osaka, Japan this weekend with the new Sporting and Technical regulations format. Check out this sneak peek of their highlights film coming soon. Chasing adventure in 2024!
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.
