Greg Smith is MP for Mid Buckinghamshire since 2024 having previously served as the MP for Buckingham from 2019.
As over half a million people flock to the birthplace of the Formula 1 World Championship – Silverstone – this weekend, it is as clear as night follows day that we should not just celebrate and promote the UKs leading position in motorsport, we should learn from it.
The Formula 1 mindset is: ‘how do we achieve being better than anyone else, in a timeframe that seems impossible, in a cost cap environment and then actually do it?’
I have often quipped that if you want a problem solved, ask a motorsport engineer.
That came into sharp focus in the pandemic, when Project Pitlane saw seven UK based Formula 1 teams put their inability to race in those days to good use, designing, manufacturing and getting new ventilators into use in a handful of weeks. Imagine if the NHS could apply that speed, precision and engineering excellence all of the time.
Formula 1 is worth more than £12 billion to the UK economy every year. A supply chain of 4,500 companies, the UK motorsport industry supports more than 41,000 jobs and 25,000 skilled engineers. A staggering fact in
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicalli’s op-ed in the Mail reveals that 80 per cent of the world’s high-performance engineering talent is right here on our shores – predominantly in Motorsport Valley, an area roughly within a 70 mile radius of Silverstone Circuit.
That talent within our country that brings such an incredible approach to innovation, technology and engineering excellence is bringing the practical answers to other challenges in day to day life. In other words innovation necessitated by motorsport, but applied so much more widely.
No where is that more clear than in the space of sustainable and synthetic fuel. Amidst the noise, one truth for me stands out –– we cannot meet our decarbonisation ambitions without also unlocking the full potential of low-carbon and synthetic fuels.
The UK needs a pragmatic, science-led, and economically viable route to decarbonising transport. A mix. Of course that involves electric – but that is not and must never be seen as the only route.
Across the UK, we are already seeing real innovation in the production and application of sustainable fuels. From carbon-neutral e-fuels produced through direct air capture and green hydrogen electrolysis, to advanced biofuels derived from waste materials, these technologies are not just theoretical—they are real, scalable, and British-led.
Formula 1 has embraced this with the new regulations this season demanding use of sustainable liquid fuels to power the internal combustion engines across all 11 teams. Petronas, BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Aramco all rising to the challenge: a 1.8 billion global audience seeing, many for the first time, this “other way”.
These fuels deliver a minimum of 65% reduction in associated carbon emissions vs a fossil fuel comparator. The fuel is independently accredited through the Sustainable Racing Fuel Assurance Scheme and across the course of the season, this is an equivalent of around 300 tonnes of Co2 removed. More than that, Formula 1 expects that the per centage drop in emissions delivered by the fuel will be higher when the full dataset from the first season of use becomes available.
Better still, there is no drop in performance.
Companies in Teesside, Humberside, Worcestershire, the North West – next door to me in Bicester – are pioneering carbon capture integration with fuel synthesis. One of them, of course, a hero of the motorsport world, Paddy Lowe: taking championship winning experience at Mercedes, Williams and McLaren to the challenge of the future of fuel.
Academic institutions and private-sector labs are proving the viability of drop-in fuels that require no major modifications to existing infrastructure. In short, the UK has the intellectual capital and industrial base to lead the world in low-carbon fuel innovation. And so much of it, comes from Formula 1 and motorsport.
Finally there is the incredible strides, far more than any other sport, to involve women and girls. From the F1 Academy to Discover Your Drive, it is Formula 1 that is investing heavily not just in the female driving talent of the future but engineers, aerodynamicists, mechanics and more. Five British women on the F1 Academy grid, hundreds of girls becoming involved in the grassroots.
So I finish where I began – let’s not just celebrate this sector – let’s actively learn from them.