Honda F1 Racing Goes Green--On the Outside
by Bonnie Alter, London on 02.27.07
When you are travelling in the fast lane, image counts. Honda has unveiled the colour scheme for their new Formula One 2007 car and it features an image of Planet Earth instead of the usual advertising and sponsor logos. Honda is going a step further. Through a new website myearthdream.com when you make a donation to an environmental charity, and pledge to make a lifestyle change, then you will get your name put on a "pixel" that will make up the image on the car. The driver, that gorgeous hunk Jensen Button, said that he wanted to raise awareness of environmental issues and that "six million people watched the race last year and it can make a big big difference if those millions of people start turning off their lights". Acknowledging the hundreds of millions of lost sponsorship monies, the images of the so-called "earth car"--which Honda expects will get massive media coverage with its environmental theme and lack of branding--will be licensed for use by the sponsors instead. Said a team member "I think this signals a recognition that formula one has to change or it will wither on the vine and become extinct." Yes, but what about the inside of the car? Business as usual. However, there have been a few signs that Formula One racing is trying to become a little more green--last year the sport's governing body put forward proposals (for 2009) to introduce systems that re-use waste heat and exhaust gases and re-use braking energies to provide additional power while making the cars more fuel efficient, but they are still only proposals and not yet in use. :: Sky Sports
The amount of emmisions the actual racecars put out is miniscule compared with the whole support aparatus that makes up F1 or any other major auto racing league. If they really want to make a difference they should leave the racecars alone and start buying offset credits to cover the entire carbon footprint of each racing event. I also wonder what happens to a set of racing tires after their 30 minutes of glory in the streets of Monaco.
They should go the way of Champ car and run methanol instead of gas.
Actually, Formula 1 is changing their rule structure starting in 2009 to allow for hybrid technology. This article from last June has a lot of good info and links covering some of the thinking behind it:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/06/formula_one_rac.html
And this is a Q&A involving FIA President Max Mosley about the goals of the FIA in the near future, where he talks about regenerative braking technology, CO2 reduction, reuse of excessive heat and waste from the engine and other road relevant technologies.
http://www.formula1.com/news/5320.html
I think it's very exciting - as Max Mosley points out, they are trying to take the millions of dollars that these teams invest in getting another 100 rpms out of their gas engines and putting that into more worthy endeavors, such as highly efficient braking energy recovery systems.
Here's a better article about the direction of Formula One technology over the next 5 years:
http://www.formula1.com/news/5393.html
Note the biofuels in 2011. Also note the fuel flow limits in 2011, which may mean that they will be given so much fuel to complete the racing for the weekend and if they don't get adequate fuel mileage, they don't finish the race.
F1 has been carbon neutral since 1997
www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/56953
The Brazillian Grand Prix draws 83 million television viewers alone.