Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team has taken a significant step towards sustainability, successfully powering its race and marketing trucks and generators for the 2024 European season with HVO100, a second-generation biofuel. This initiative aligns with the team’s broader ambition to become one of the most sustainable global professional sports teams.
Partnering with their Title and Technical Partner, PETRONAS, and key logistics providers, the team set an ambitious goal to expand biofuel use during the nine European races in 2024, specifically for freight logistics and their motorhome operations. Despite facing challenges related to the complexities of the European supply chain, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team achieved an impressive 98% biofuel coverage in its race and marketing trucks and generators. This effort reduced their carbon footprint by over 500 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e).
This 98% biofuel coverage marks a significant increase from the 74% achieved during the 2023 European races, bringing the team closer to its ultimate goal of achieving Net Zero emissions for its Race Team Control operations by 2030. This achievement is also a key milestone in their broader sustainable fuels strategy.
Since the team’s initial biofuel pilot in 2022, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 has provided a successful proof of concept for reducing the environmental impact of logistics and power demands in motorsport. The team attributes much of its success to PETRONAS, whose expertise in biofuel development and supply chain management has been critical. PETRONAS played a key role in sourcing and delivering HVO100 biofuel across Europe, ensuring that the team’s motorhome and marketing trucks could operate on sustainable fuel throughout the season.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 highlighted the significance of this achievement: “Powering our European season on biofuel is a first for our team and sport, and I hope our achievements, with the invaluable support, expertise, and supply capability of our Title and Technical Partner PETRONAS, will inspire others to follow. We look forward to now challenging ourselves to expand the use of sustainable fuel in our logistics beyond the European races and continuing to prepare to introduce the fully sustainable fuel which will power the 2026 cars on track.”
The team’s focus now shifts to expanding biofuel usage beyond the European season as Formula One prepares to implement a sustainable centralized power solution for the European races in 2025. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team is committed to advancing its biofuel usage to include flyaway races, continuing to lead the industry towards a more sustainable future.
Alice Ashpitel, Head of Sustainability at Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1, reinforced the team’s dedication: “We’re a team of problem solvers, and pursuing sustainable high performance is always front of mind. Optimising our logistics operations and achieving almost total biofuel coverage reflects our team’s significant sustainability efforts. It’s a real inspiration to see the reduction of our impact on the track and the road. We continue to address the largest sources of our emissions, and how we transport the team’s freight and power our operations across the globe remain key focus areas.”
As the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team continues its sustainability journey, it aims to set a benchmark for the motorsport industry, proving that high performance and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand.
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