F1: A More Sustainable Outlook

Formula 1's push for a more sustainable outlook is one of the most closely tracked corporate sustainability stories in sport: a Net Zero by 2030 target, pursued while flying a travelling operation to two dozen countries a year. That makes the sport a useful case study for any business with a hard emissions deadline, a complicated supply chain and a board asking for numbers rather than intentions.

The people who ran those programmes inside F1 teams now speak about them, and their material travels well beyond motorsport. This is a look at where the sport's more sustainable outlook actually stands on sustainability, what the 2026 rule change does, and why data is doing most of the work.

What is Formula 1?

Formula 1 is the top international class of open-wheel, single-seater motor racing, governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and running since 1950. "Formula" refers to the technical rules every car must meet, and the "1" marks it as the premier series. Teams compete across a season of Grands Prix held on purpose-built circuits and closed public roads, from Monaco to Silverstone to Monza. The 2026 season runs with eleven teams, following Cadillac's arrival as a new entry and Audi's takeover of the Sauber operation.

Where F1 has got to on net zero

F1 committed to Net Zero by 2030, with a minimum 50% cut in emissions against a 2018 baseline. Its most recently published sustainability figures, for year-end 2024, reported a 26% reduction, taking its footprint from 228,793 tonnes of CO2 equivalent to 168,720 — over halfway to the interim goal, and achieved while the calendar grew rather than shrank, which is the part worth paying attention to. F1 publishes an annual Impact Report, so anyone quoting these numbers on stage should check for a more recent update before presenting them as current.

The reductions came from unglamorous places. Redesigned freight containers that allow more efficient Boeing 777 aircraft saved around 9,000 tonnes. Biofuel trucks across the European leg cut emissions on those journeys by an average of 83%. Investment in sustainable aviation fuel with DHL and Qatar Airways took roughly 8,000 tonnes out, a 19% reduction on the related travel. Moving broadcast operations to remote production removed almost 20,000 tonnes, a quarter of that category. Factories and facilities cut 59% by shifting to renewable energy.

The 2026 fuel change

From the 2026 season, F1 runs on 100% sustainable fuel, moving off the E10 blend it used previously. The fuel is a synthetic E fuel produced by Aramco, engineered so the carbon used to make it matches the carbon the engine emits. F2 and F3 made the switch ahead of F1 and have been running on advanced sustainable fuel already.

The internal combustion engine stays. That is the commercially interesting part of the decision: a drop-in fuel works in the roughly two billion combustion vehicles already on the road, with no engine modification. A business audience tends to find that framing more useful than a story about electrification, because it is a decarbonisation route for assets you already own.

Why the freight matters more than the cars

The cars are a small share of F1's footprint. The travelling operation is the problem: moving equipment, garages and several thousand people between continents on a compressed calendar. F1's response has been to redesign how it ships, shift what it can from air to sea, regionalise the calendar so races in the same part of the world sit together, and cut the number of people who need to travel at all.

That is a familiar shape for most organisations. The headline product is rarely where the emissions sit. They sit in logistics, facilities and business travel, and they get reduced by operational decisions rather than by a rebrand.

The F1 speakers who ran this work

Three PepTalk speakers worked inside F1 teams on exactly this, and all three speak to business audiences well outside motorsport.

Gary Foote

Gary Foote is CIO and Sustainability Director at Haas F1, and one of the UK's top 100 CIOs. He works with organisations on data-driven decisions, motorsport technology and sustainable IT. His session How F1 Aims To Be Carbon Neutral By 2030 is the closest fit for an ESG audience, and Lessons In Risk Management From F1 suits a broader leadership room.

Learn more and book Gary Foote →

Neil Martin

Neil Martin built race strategy systems at Ferrari and McLaren and now runs Paceteq, whose technology is used by more than half the current F1 grid. He speaks on AI-driven performance and leading high-performing teams, and Plan For The Future works for audiences deciding where to put their analytics investment.

Learn more and book Neil Martin →

Ruth Buscombe-Divey

Ruth Buscombe-Divey spent eight seasons as Head of Race Strategy for elite F1 teams and now analyses the sport on broadcast. The Role Of Data, AI, And GenAI In F1 covers how those calls get made under time pressure with incomplete information, which is the situation most commercial decisions are actually taken in.

Learn more and book Ruth Buscombe-Divey →

What the audience expects

F1's fan base has grown younger and more diverse, and it asks harder questions. Supporters want to know where merchandise comes from and whether the sustainability claims hold up, which pushes teams to be able to evidence them. Any consumer brand will recognise the dynamic, and the ones that get caught out are usually the ones making claims they cannot show their working on. Our piece on how to spot greenwashing covers where that goes wrong.

Why book an F1 speaker on ESG

F1 teams face the same pressures as any business: return on investment, operational efficiency, and decisions that have to be made quickly on partial data. What makes them useful on a stage is that the feedback loop is brutally short. A strategy call is proved right or wrong within two hours, and the whole thing is measured. Speakers from that environment talk about evidence and trade-offs in a way that lands with audiences who have heard enough sustainability keynotes made of ambition.

If the brief is broader than ESG, we cover the performance angle in driving performance with motorsport and F1 speakers and the leadership angle in leadership from the perspective of Formula 1.

💡 Interested in booking Gary Foote, Neil Martin or Ruth Buscombe-Divey, or exploring the business of motorsport more widely? Get in touch with the PepTalk team and we will scope the right format and a quote for your audience. You can also call us on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US). Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!