[forzaferrari]

This would cheer you up no end.....NOT 

The future of Formula One has raced into uncertainty after the UK government announced on Tuesday that it would ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 “or earlier if a faster transition is feasible.”

They were originally due to reach the end of the road in 2040 but experts advised the government to put the brakes on them sooner in order to achieve its target of the UK emitting virtually zero carbon by 2050.

Talking at the launch event for a United Nations climate summit in November, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that 2020 would be a “defining year of climate action” for the planet. “Now is the moment. It is up to us to organise the nations of the world to do something about it,” added the acclaimed natural historian Sir David Attenborough. “The longer we leave it... the worse it is going to get.”

It is ominous for F1 as the auto racing series is a poster boy for pollution. This year F1’s ten teams will travel to a record 22 races in 22 countries over eight months which is far from an easy ride.

F1 takes to each event 150,000 kilos of broadcast equipment, 30 containers of hospitality facilities and as much as 50 tons of freight per team. It comes to more than 750 tons and logistics giant DHL uses nearly 300 trucks to transport it to F1’s 9 European races. Up to seven Boeing 747 cargo planes transport the freight to the 13 long-haul races and fly a total of 131,995 kilometres throughout the season. It takes a hefty toll on the environment and that’s without even including the emissions from the cars themselves.

F1’s cars are powered by a 1.6 liter V6 engine which the sport’s chief executive Chase Carey described in November as being “the most efficient in the world.” The driving force behind his claim is that F1’s engines are hybrids as they use the energy created under braking to run an electric motor which gives the cars environmentally-friendly power.

Hybrids were seen by many as being the future of transport but that reputation was dented by Tuesday’s announcement as these engines also fall under the UK government’s ban.

There is no suggestion that the incoming legislation would prevent F1 teams from using hybrid engines but it would prevent auto makers from selling cars in the UK which are powered by them. F1’s engines are made by Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes and Renault and the UK is a major market for them. It is also F1’s home country.

Although F1 is owned by American investment firm Liberty Media and listed on the Nasdaq with the ticker FWONK, its headquarters is in the UK which is also where seven of the ten teams are based. It means that in F1’s home country auto makers will not be allowed to sell cars which are powered by the same type of engine that is used in the sport.

Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes and Renault spend almost $1 billion annually on their F1 engines and they do this for two reasons. Firstly, to drive publicity of their cars and, secondly, to make developments with the race engines which trickle down to their road cars.

Both of these driving forces will come to a screeching halt in F1’s home country when the new legislation comes into effect and the sale of electric vehicles becomes mandatory. Combustion engines don’t promote EVs and the former doesn’t drive development of the latter. The UK is just the start. France plans to ban fossil-fuel powered cars by 2040 and Norway’s parliament has set a goal of all cars producing zero emissions by 2025.