It’s by far Formula 1’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. And yet it doesn’t seem close to streamlining its racing schedule to reduce the distances traveled by its teams.
It’s dizzying. After a start to the season in Asia and Oceania, the great Formula 1 circus straddled Asia and Europe (Azerbaijan) a month and a half ago, before heading to the United States (Miami ) the following week, then to leave for Europe, and finally to land in Montreal this week. As soon as the Canadian Grand Prix is over, she will set sail for Europe in a mad race that will take her back through Asia, then the Americas, then again Asia.
It is not surprising that almost three quarters of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of this aptly named world championship are due to its travels. Not those of its cars on the track, which represented barely 0.7% of the total during the 2018 season, but those of all the equipment required for each race (45%), which we transport each time by plane, by ship and truck, as well as team members and their many partners (28%).
It’s also no wonder that having promised to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, Formula 1 executives are trying to see what could be done to reduce all that distance traveled by streamlining the order of races in particular. . They speak of a “regionalization” of the calendar, which would ensure that all the European events would be held one after the other, like all those of the North American bloc and those in Asia… In order to reduce the number of round trips to the four corners of the globe and to reduce the use of air transport, which is more polluting.
“But it’s not an easy problem to fix and it will take time,” F1 sporting director Ross Brawn said last fall.
Races in the snow
The President and CEO of the Octane Racing Group and promoter of the Grand Prix de Montréal, François Dumontier, agrees. “It’s a subject that we have often discussed between promoters and with Formula 1. We recognize that the objective is laudable and that there would be a logic to doing this, but it is easier said than said. do because we each have our constraints and our realities,” he said in an interview with the Duty last week.
In Montreal, for example, we remember that the first F1 Grands Prix on the Île Notre-Dame circuit were held on cold autumn days, and that it even snowed on the very first race, in October 1978. Holding the event before June could also be risky, given the whims of the Quebec spring, says François Dumontier. Then, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is in a park shared with the whole of the population, and that it is necessary to coordinate with a tourist industry which plans its activities often several years in advance, especially in the case of congresses.
Formula 1 is considering two main scenarios: holding the Canadian Grand Prix after Miami in early May or placing it just before Austin, Texas and Mexico City in October, reports The Press this week.
François Dumontier repeats that he is not closed to discussion, but that it is a question of “a long-term project”. “I think that this project is not for tomorrow. The agreement between Formula 1 and Montreal specifies that the event must be held “between certain dates in June”, he specifies, and it will not expire before 2031.
While waiting to reorganize its agenda, Formula 1 congratulated itself, in its last report on sustainable development, on having switched from old Boeing 747s to newer, less polluting 777s for the air transport of its cargo. She was also delighted to have found ways to reduce the quantity and weight of the equipment transported each time by now carrying out a good part of the work of broadcasting the events on TV remotely.