Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Formula 1 has expressed a desire to keep the internal combustion engine alive at the top level of motorsport, despite efforts by some automakers and governments to fully embrace electric vehicles.
In an in-depth interview with an Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore Domenicali said F1 will “never be electric”, when asked how the sport fits into the era of sustainability and electric mobility.
He added that F1 aims to be carbon neutral by 2030 and that lofty goal can be achieved by switching to 100% sustainable fuel. F1 and its partners are evolving in time for the 2026 season.
A sustainable fuel, often called E-fuel, is any fuel in which the carbon cycle is completely neutral, so the amount of carbon used to produce the fuel is the same as the amount of carbon emitted from the internal combustion engine when the fuel is burned. The manufacturing process typically involves some form of carbon capture technology.
Key partners in F1’s sustainable fuel project include motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, and Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company and one of F1’s main sponsors. Porsche and its partners already have the pilot plant in Chile production of sustainable fuel.
But F1 doesn’t just develop fuel for its racing cars. The fuel is being developed with the goal of eventually producing it in quantities sufficient to power most cars worldwide.
In an interview, Domenicali said that by 2035, when some governments, including the European Union, have mandated that zero-carbon vehicles only there will still be around two billion internal combustion engine cars for sale on the road, and their carbon dioxide emissions could potentially be offset by a sustainable fuel such as the one under development for F1.
“Zero emissions can be achieved without changing engines or discarding existing fleets,” he said.
This article was originally published by Motor Vehicle Authority, editorial partner ClassicCars.com.
