Welcome back fellow readers! We hope you’ve enjoyed boating school as much as we did last week 🙂 but let’s get ashore and hitch a ride to our next destination – motor-racing!
Unmatched Popularity
Motor-racing refers to motorsports involving the racing of automobiles – four-wheeled vehicles and motorbikes – for competition (Miller, 2017). Its global popularity is apparent from numerous specialty magazines, tonnes of memorabilia, to the swarth of tourists it attracts during the competition season (Kim. et al, 2016). The immersive experience of being on the race track as we feel the adrenaline rushing through our veins is indeed exhilarating, and it is a potent magnet for drawing crowds of fans.
More specifically, the Formula 1 (F1) race has long reigned as the pinnacle cup of motor-racing, with over 4 million spectators having attended the 2019 FIA Formula One Championship held around the world, including Singapore (FIA, 2019)! The 2019 night race in Singapore attracted a record high of 268,000 spectators (Wong, 2019).
Personally, I haven’t had the opportunity to attend the F1 night races in Singapore, but I have friends (more accurately speaking their generous parents) who have forked out hundreds and a few thousands for that experience. I might have to pass on that, I have student loans to pay :’)
Undoubtedly, these surging numbers are testament to F1’s seven decades of unyielding popularity, but are also reflective of the environmental implications brought about by its operations.
And as students of GE3246, it is up to us to uncover its pollutive and degrading practices! So strap in and let’s go!
Beyond Powerful Engines
The F1 Grand Prix is often considered to be a regular source of CO2 emissions due its substantial consumption of fossil fuels and many races during each season (Mourao, 2018). Moreover, the ever-growing scale of these races has resulted in the steady increase of these emissions throughout the competition seasons as seen below, although a drop has been observed in recent years from 2010 to 2013 (Mourao, 2018).
It has been estimated that the 2018 Grand Prix’s total carbon emissions amounted to a staggering 256,551 tonnes (Edmondson, 2019)! Surprisingly, although a F1 vehicle emits about 1.5kg of CO2for every kilometer it drives – about nine times that of a family car – the race itself is only responsible for just 0.3% of the sport’s carbon emissions (Miller, 2017).
So…where does the bulk of the emissions come from?
Well, if you guessed from the transportation of mobile headquarters, hospitality centres, and tons of race cars to the 21 calendar races held annually (Hanley, 2019), you are right heh. The transportation of these equipment from 10 racing teams is estimated to cover over 82,000 air miles annually, with 66,678 tonnes of carbon dioxide produced during the trips (Hanley, 2019). This, together with the fuel exhausted at the testing venues and promotional events account for more than 45% of the Grand Prix’s carbon footprint! It is thus apparent that the impact of the F1 races extends beyond the engines on the ground, thereby contributing to the complexity in emission control, as seen from the infographic below.
Additionally, apart from the carbon footprint, noise pollution is also another cause of concern. The screeching sounds of car tires, noisy overhead helicopters broadcasting the event to a global audience, and the blaring public announcement systems were all sources of discomfort (Sturm, 2018).
The Race Has to GO ON
Alright we get it, F1 isn’t a sustainable sport, but it is extremely lucrative and given its international scale with numerous sponsors, we can’t just pull the plug on it!!!
Woah woah I hear you and agree with your thoughts. Indeed, the plethora of environmental impacts should not be perceived as a dead end road for the motor-racing industry, instead, it presents us with the opportunity to invent greener technology! Who knows? The new inventions might have spillover effects on conventional cars, benefiting the entire automobile industry.
So stay tuned for our next post as we shall delve into the world of Formula E, and how it has revolutionised F1, or not 😀
References:
FIA. (2019). Grand Prix attendance surpasses 4 million in 2019. Available from: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.grand-prix-attendance-surpasses-4-million-in-2019.61fEHE3wb7Wl8tHfP8cBTd.html#:~:text=As%20in%202018%2C%20more%20than,Prix%20due%20to%20Typhoon%20Hagibis. [Accessed 31 August 2020]
Hanley, S. (2019). The gigantic footprint of formula one. CleanTechnica. Available from: https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/30/the-gigantic-carbon-footprint-of-formula-one/ [Accessed 31 August 2020]
Kim, S. K., Yim, B. H., Byon, K. K., Yu, J. G., & Lee, S. M. (2016). Spectator perception of service quality attributes associated with Shanghai Formula One: Importance and performance analysis approach. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship. 17(2), 153-171. Available from: doi: 10.1108/IJSMS-04-2016-011
Miller, T. (2017). ‘Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday. Formula One and NASCAR’, in Miller, T (ed.) Greenwashing Sport. London: Routledge. 39-53. Available from: doi: 10.4324/9781315659244
Mourao, P. R. (2018). Smoking Gentlemen – How Formula One has controlledCO2emissions. Sustainability. 10(6), 1-23. Available from: doi: 10.3390/su10061841
Sturm, D. (2018). Formula E’s ‘green’ challenge to motorsport events, spaces and technologies: the London e-prix as a case study, in Sturm, D. (ed). Green events and green tourism: An international guide to good practice. London: Routledge. 145-153. Available from: doi: 10.4324/9780429445125-15
Wong, J. (2019). 268,000 fans attend this year’s F1 Grand Prix, second-highest on record. The Straits Times. Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/formula-one/formula-one-second-highest-total-of-268000-fans-attend-this-years-singapore-grand [Accessed 31 August 2020]
Images and Gifs:
CNN. (2019). Singapore Grand Prix: Humidity meets hedonism during Asia’s most punishing race. Available from: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/20/sport/singapore-formula-one-grand-prix-hnk-spt-intl/index.html [Accessed 31 August 2020]
Giphy. (n.d.). Spongebob. Available from: https://media.giphy.com/media/3ogwG5dOa4ct9TwRna/giphy.mp4 [Accessed 31 August 2020]
Iyengar, R. (2017). The logistics behind F1. Medium. Available from: https://medium.com/speedbox-is-typing/the-logistics-behind-f1-7537e445de20 [Accessed 31 August 2020]