The inconvenient questions posed by Vettel’s Williams run
By:
Jonathan Noble
Sebastian Vettel's demo laps on board his own Williams FW14B was not only a great spectacle for the fans, but were carried out with a fully sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel. And it begs the question - for all of the money F1 has spent on championing hybrids and electric components, could it go back to V8s or V10s with a similar kind of fuel?
The grand prix paddock may be a piranha club at times, but there is no greater unifying force than a loud, iconic Formula 1 car putting in some demo laps.
Every time it has happened recently – whether it was Fernando Alonso reunited with his Renault R25 at Abu Dhabi in 2019, or Mick Schumacher in an F2004 at Mugello in 2020 – tools are downed in the pitlane and everyone finds time to admire the on-track action.
It was certainly no different at the British Grand Prix last weekend when Sebastian Vettel got the privilege of driving his own Williams FW14B, which Nigel Mansell had taken to the world championship title in 1992.
The pitlane fence was crammed with drivers, mechanics, engineers and team bosses, all eager to catch a glimpse of the Williams in action. And, as the German returned to the start/finish straight afterwards, there was Mansell to greet the beaming four-time champion.
“It was very special,” admitted Vettel afterwards. “I felt like a five-year-old again, because the sound, everything, just brought me back to 30 years ago.”
But there was more to Vettel’s run in the Williams than just being about a bit of fun on a pre-race Sunday morning, for there was something incredibly significant about what Vettel had done.
Having become the F1 paddock’s chief environmentalist, he had convinced himself that the only way to justify the laps in his classic car was for it to be done in a climate-friendly way. For Vettel, that meant sourcing fully sustainable carbon neutral fuel that would allow the screaming V10 engine to run without modifications.
“I asked the question: can you have fun with a Formula 1 car and at the same time have as little impact on the environment as possible?” He said before the event. “How could we drive an original 1992 FW14B in a totally sustainable way? Given the time frame and not wanting to change anything about the engine, could we find a fuel that would replace traditional fossil fuel? And that would allow us to run the car in an environmentally friendly way?
“The answer is yes. We left everything as it was and used a carbon-neutral fuel. This is a fuel that does not add any CO2 to the environment, but is a fully sustainable, carbon-neutral solution. With this future technology we are able to keep an old-school platform alive like a traditional race car and drive it without ecological traces.”
Vettel called upon the services of Berlin-based sustainable fuel producers P1 Performance Fuels to provide its Eco100 RS product. Its fully synthetic fuel is what is known as a drop-in fuel – so doesn’t require any modifications to an existing engine for it to run. P1’s fully sustainable fuel made its debut in the World Rally Championship this year, with its products having first made an appearance in the WTCR.
"The introduction [of sustainable fuels] is planned for 2026. I understand that not everybody is easily agreeing on changing it sooner, but in the end that's probably what would be the right call, to do it sooner" Sebastian Vettel
The non-fossil fuel-based components are derived from bioethanol produced from cellulose and ligneous biomass, as well as bio-synthetic (fully renewable) fuel. The success of Vettel’s run in wowing the crowd and F1 personnel delivered the answer that historic cars can have a long future to keep being driven for years to come, despite the growing momentum behind electric cars.
As Vettel said: “You can express culture in many ways – music, arts – but our sort of culture, our way of expressing ourselves, is driving cars, racing cars. And it would be a shame if that was all to disappear. I think it's a way to keep it alive.”
The answer to the question about running old cars on sustainable fuel was great. But there is a more inconvenient question that has been prompted by Vettel’s run. And it is that if even old machinery can run on current 100% sustainable fuels, then is F1’s policy of waiting until 2026 to make the switch with its own product too slow?
Vettel for one reckoned that the evidence of the Mansell car run had showed the technology is ready now to make the move.
Big oil co have spent hundreds of millions developing their fuels
“I'm not taking decisions here, but I can obviously ask questions and the plan is to move in that direction,” he said. “There's pros and cons, also when you talk about synthetic fuels, how you do them, what's the source and so on. But we have no time to waste, no time to wait, and obviously the introduction is planned for 2026. I understand that not everybody is easily agreeing on changing it sooner, but in the end that's probably what would be the right call, to do it sooner."
A fast-tracking of sustainable fuels to F1 before 2026 would inevitably hit some big resistance. Fuel and oil companies involved in grand prix racing would certainly not be too happy at seeing their current work on fossil fuel technology thrown out sooner than anticipated.
And for manufacturers, the concern would be, amid an F1 engine freeze, how a switch to sustainable fuel would impact on performance and reliability of their current engines. It’s one thing to have a sustainable fuel that an engine will happily run on for a few laps; quite another if that power unit has to last seven grands prix with little performance drop off. It will be interesting to see how the WRC power units are impacted over the long haul of a season by the switch of fuel.
A wider philosophical question posed by Vettel’s run also is that if sustainable fuels are capable of powering powerful and loud racing cars, then does F1 really need to keep pushing on with quieter fuel efficient turbo hybrid engines for its next rules cycle?
Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, who is now a pundit for Sky Sports, reckoned Vettel’s run should start a debate within Formula 1 about grand prix racing plotting a different path for future engine rules.
“I feel like the road car industry, and I do a little bit of work now doing programmes on the road car side and learning about that, are doing so much research, and ploughing billions into electrification and hybrid,” he told Sky Sports. "I feel like F1 should actually ditch the hybrid, ditch the battery systems, and save 120-odd kilos. I think F1 cars have got a bit too fat now, and let's go back to V10s which are screaming and running on biofuels.”
While a return to screaming V8s or V10s run on sustainable fuel would be something a lot of fans would like, it would be a hard sell for the current manufacturers in F1. Despite the shift to fully electric cars, they still see the road relevance in an F1 programme of hybrid engines in allowing technology to shift across to the electric products they sell on garage forecourts.
The likes of Mercedes, Renault, Porsche and Audi don’t sell sustainable fuels so there is little interest in F1 pushing only that technology. They sell cars, so a bespoke old-school racing engine that is a world away from what is in their product ranges does not have the same attraction.
However, it will be interesting to see in a few years’ time whether the rush of worldwide governments towards electrification hits some hurdles when the reality of what they do bites.
We are already seeing the first concerns aired about the environmental negativity of lithium mining; and the proper analysis about the dust-to-dust climate impact on electric cars suggests they are far from as green as some would like to make out (especially when electric power is sourced from coal-fired power stations).
"I feel like F1 should actually ditch the hybrid, ditch the battery systems, and save 120-odd kilos. Let's go back to V10s which are screaming and running on biofuels" Karun Chandhok
If F1’s sustainable fuel push from 2026 is a success, in helping open the door for a mass market carbon neutral drop-in fuel that hits a realistic price point (Vettel’s Williams fuel costs 5.95 Euros for a litre), then the arguments against not extending the life of combustion engines suddenly fall away very quickly. The world could then be set for an intriguing battleground of public opinion between the combustion engine and the electric car...
Red Bull boss Christian Horner, whose team has just set up its own powertrains division and is poised for a partnership with Porsche, reckons that the significance of Vettel’s carbon neutral run should not be brushed aside for one other simple reason: the noise.
“Listening to that engine, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up,” he said. “People still go to see Rolling Stones concerts and music, and I think the noise of F1 is something that is part of its DNA. It shouldn't be ignored.”
Vettel’s run has given F1 plenty of food for thought about the future; which is exactly what he had hoped for.
Could Vettel's Williams run inspire a new technology path for F1?
2019 GTP Accuracy Champion 
