17/07/2024
NEWS STORY
A 1973 McLaren M19A took part in the recent historic cars event at Silverstone, the first time a car has lapped the iconic track using 100% fossil-free synthetic fuel.
Former F1 driver and winner of the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, David Brabham drove the M19A using fuel made from just air and water to show first hand that all engines, from modern day challengers to naturally aspirated classic F1 cars, can elevate their performance in a sustainable fashion.
The event marked the first British Grand Prix as an official partner in F1 for Zero, the energy company that develops and manufactures whole-blend synthetic, non-biological fuels - gasoline, diesel and jet fuel - in a completely fossil-free process, using just carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water.
Zero's fuel synthesis process has demonstrated industry-leading fuel quality and production efficiency, its synthetic fuels (e-fuels, electrofuels, PtL, eSAF) being fully sustainable and circular in material, they retain the critical energy density of liquid fuels, and they can be manufactured at unlimited scale, therefore providing the only solution to the total de-fossilization of the majority of transport sectors including aviation, heavy transport, marine and agriculture.
Founded by Paddy Lowe, formerly technical director with Williams, McLaren and Mercedes, Zero is leading change within the sport as an official partner of the Stake F1 team.
Zero recently opened the world's first fully featured synthetic fuel plant (Plant Zero.1) near Oxford, and has plans to build a commercial-scale plant which is to begin production in 2026.
"When we talk about the fuel of the future, many people automatically assume that such a fuel can only go into an equally futuristic car," said Lowe. "We came to Formula 1's oldest Grand Prix to show that synthetic fuel can transform even a 1973 McLaren into a fossil-free powerhouse with the same ease as it does modern cars.
The Historic Racing Cars event provided the perfect meeting of the old and the new, demonstrating how racing's heritage can be adapted for a carbon-neutral future. We were there to give every generation of racing fans more of what they love, because after all: we haven't reinvented the wheel, just the fuel."
Whatever your views on the fuel, isn't it nice just to look at this beauty, and, at a time the sport is seeking a "balanced" sound that will allow families to "communicate" during races, recall the wonderful sound of that era.