Original Post

Formula One has the goal to use 100% carbon neutral fuel starting in 2026, and they are currently in a hybrid phase of using between 10-50% sustainable fuels.

No one immediately thinks of formula one when being asked about sustainability, since they make 20 new super cars a year that require lots of fuel, repairs and tyre sets; but F1 is trying to change their reputation. By requiring teams to be sustainable by 2026, it puts a hard deadline on oil and engine producers. Many oil producers, such as Shell who partners with Scuderia Ferrari, are very excited for this change. It’s a whole new area for them to discover and innovate ways to power some of the world’s most powerful cars.

In 2022, many teams struggled to have slightly carbon neutral fuel by the new regulations stating teams were required to have a 10%-Ethanol bio-component in their fuel. Ethanol is a basic component used in oil all over the world, but combining that with an F1 engine had its challenges. Being on a platform such as F1, since it’s for such a small population, is a great way to test out new fuel elements without too much risk.

Other teams are also excited for the 2026 sustainability initiatives, such as Oracle Red Bull Racing. Red Bull recently announced their partnership with Ford starting in 2026 to be their new engine supplier. Ford has also been working towards sustainability on their own, making a new line of entirely sustainable cars and wanting the entire company to be carbon neutral by 2050. Ford joining F1 is a huge step, especially since they have not been in F1 for over 25 years. Ford coming back in 2026 shows that they are excited to step into a new realm of sustainability.

There are actions that both F1 the organization and individual teams (such as Scuderia Ferrari) can take. For F1, they should create an end-of-year sustainability report to update fans and stakeholders of what progress the organization as a whole has made. Some reporting standards they should measure their progress through are the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Using these reporting standards will help to systematize their results and compare them to meaningful measurements. Following these standards and having a year-end report would create transparency and accountability for F1.

Individual teams should also create an even more in-depth report of their individual sustainability measures and their own personal team goals they want to achieve in the next 1, 3 and 5 years. Having these individual reports will further show that teams are committed to sustainability not only because of the rules but because they also care about the environment and the impact they have on it.