Formula 2’s advanced sustainable fuel will be the next breakthrough

All Formula 2 vehicles have started to use Advanced Sustainable Fuels for the first time in a competitive setting.

The World Motor Sport Council has decided that during the 2023 Championships, F2 and F3 will run 55 percent Advanced Sustainable Fuels. won following the introduction of 100 percent sustainable fuel to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2026.

Formula 1's Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds has explained, “Our current hybrid engines are, as I hope most people know, the most efficient engines on the planet. But I think the next revolution is just around the corner: 100% sustainable fuel that will work just as well as existing fuels – it really is a drop-in fuel and it really will be our next breakthrough and something that will once again, using Formula 1, demonstrate the art of the possible."

Symonds argued that they would complement one another because battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and sustainable fuels for F1 are both workable answers to the global warming issue.

While Formula 2 and Formula 3 will employ sustainable fuels, they will do so in a different way than F1. As part of a unique collaboration with Aramco, both junior single-seater series currently employ 55% sustainable biofuels in all 52 vehicles.

Bruno Michel, CEO FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3, said, “Today is a very important day. It marks an extraordinary breakthrough in motorsport, with F2 and F3 becoming the first championships to introduce Advanced Sustainable Fuels. It’s another major step in making our sport more sustainable. We have been working very hard behind the scenes with our partner Aramco, and we are proud to see all fifty-two cars now running successfully with these fuels.”

The term "sustainable fuel" refers to various alternative methods of providing fuel for vehicles and airplanes to lower their carbon footprint. In addition to biofuels, which turn organic waste into fuel, it also contains the carbon-capturing e-fuels that F2 and F3 intend to transition to in 2027. But, what unites all sustainable fuels is their minimal net carbon emissions.

Carbon neutrality till 2030

By the end of 2030, Formula 1 and its governing body, the Federation Internationall'Automobileobile (FIA), intend to achieve complete carbon neutrality, and preparations for that transition are underway.

Manufacturers of F1 engines are currently required to use E10 fuel, which contains 10 percent ethanol biofuel. Yet starting in 2026, engine makers will combine a new engine recipe with 100 percent renewable fuels. The goal is to have sustainable fuels introduced into those engines as well, given that forecasts indicate that there will be 1.4 billion cars on the earth in 2030, the bulk of which will be driven by internal combustion engines.

In 2026, Formula 1 will switch to fully renewable fuels. The carbon needed to produce the intricate hydrocarbon chains can be obtained by providers UF1's F1's standards for 2026 from a variety of non-food bio sources, municipal trash, or carbon extracted straight from the atmosphere/factory flue sources. But for their fuel in 2027, F2 and F3 plan to just use direct-air carbon capture. In order to createfuel'suel's hydrocarbon molecules, this directly removes fuel from the environment.

To make fully synthetic sustainable fuels to be feasible, carbon capture technology and production capacity need to advance greatly. Nonetheless, F1 aspires for its sustainable fuels to be fully synthetic as well.