Motorsport UK has launched a consultation surrounding proposals requiring sustainable fuels to be adopted from 2026 in all UK championships and series that stipulate the use of specialist racing fuels.
The governing body has an ambitious sustainability strategy that is aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the sport. It believes sustainable fuels have an important part to play in this and has spent the past 18 months assessing how best to introduce them.
Draft regulations have now been created that would require all categories where specialist racing fuels are mandated to instead use fuels that are made of at least 50% sustainable content from 2026.
It is then intended that such series would feature fully sustainable fuels by 2030, but there would be no change for those drivers who use regular pump fuel.
“Even though there are some quite aspirational targets in Motorsport UK’s sustainability strategy, we've got to be realistic about how we achieve them,” explained Motorsport UK technical director Ian Smith.
“The balance to strike with fuel use in competition is that it's actually a very small part of the overall environmental impact of the sport, so there's no point pretending we're going to solve the world's problems by switching a small proportion of our community to a sustainable fuel.
“But we've got to start somewhere and, if you're racing in a series where there are technical or sporting reasons to justify using a specialist racing fuel, then those are the circumstances where a mandated switch to a sustainable specialist racing fuel is going to be the easiest transition.
“If we were to ask somebody who's competing in a sporting trial and, on their way to a field in Warwickshire they fill up a 20-litre jerry can with unleaded at Tesco, to switch to a sustainable fuel, that completely blows the doors off how they go about their racing.
“First of all, it probably quadruples their fuel cost for the entire year and it means they can't go to Tesco to fill up on their way to the event.
“There's no point even going there because we can't make the sport sustainable by pricing people out of it – it completely defeats the object – so specialist racing fuels is where we start and we've got some great case studies already.”
Smith highlighted how sustainable fuels have already been introduced in a variety of categories, such as British GT and British Formula 4, while Daryl DeLeon contested the last two British Touring Car events using a fuel entirely made from sustainable sources. All cars at last month’s Goodwood Revival were also powered by sustainable fuels.
The governing body has analysed the impact its proposals would have and has estimated that around 10% of championships, series and events across the racing, karting and speed disciplines (such as hillclimbs and sprints) would be affected by the planned 2026 change.
Smith also stressed there are currently no plans to force sustainable fuels to be used more widely in the future, although acknowledged that such a move may be necessary further down the line.
“I think it will need to but, at the moment, we've not put any flags in the ground in terms of when,” he said.
“While within motorsport we can see the value of sustainable fuels, it's not a technology that's recognised by government as a net zero technology.
“We're lobbying as best we can to say you need to recognise sustainable liquid fuels as part of the journey to net zero.
“If we can start to encourage the addition of sustainable fuel as a component of the fuel we all buy on the high street, then we get sustainable fuel into the rest of the sport by default and we start to address the biggest proportion of our impact, which is everybody descending on Silverstone in July to go and watch the grand prix and the other events with high attendances.”
The consultation is open until 16 December and a form is available on the Motorsport UK website that people can complete with their feedback
