Racing Going Green

When I came across this article, Vroom, Vroom: Formula 1 Orders Teams to Go Green by Chuck Squatriglia, it made me think that sporting events is something that is very rarely talked about when it comes to going “green”. Sporting events would be an excellent avenue to promote the concept of “going green” out to a large mass of people. Where else could you share a message with an audience numbering 75,000 to 250,000 people all at the same time? A Formula One, F1, race would be such a sporting event.
Formula One and the sport of racing in general has been trying to become more eco-friendly. Some of the ways in which they have been trying to improve is to use biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells, and even hybrids. This article states that it is the sports responsibility to show the universe what can be accomplished by “going green”, and I think it is an excellent idea.
Kinetic energy recovering systems is a recent way the sport is trying to better itself when it comes to the environment. These new systems use a flywheel in the transmission to capture the energy created when a car brakes and uses it during the acceleration process. The result of this new technology is that the car can now generate 80 more horsepower without burning another drop of fuel.
As you can see, huge strides are being made in the sport of auto racing so it will become more environmentally friendly. If the major automakers would follow F1 racing’s lead and create better cars with the same technology, the world would become a more efficient, cleaner, and better place.