FIA World Endurance Championship‘s official fuel supplier TotalEnergies will debut its 100% renewable fuel at this weekend’s 1,000 Miles of Sebring.
Making their first stance in eco-friendly racing, the entire WEC field will run Excellium Racing 100. The biofuel is created without using any oil, but instead recycled residual biomass from the wine industry, showing that it is possible to create biofuels without using up more natural resources like plants. The greenhouse gas emissions savings of Excellium is at least 65% when compared to traditional fossil fuels, meeting the requirements of the FIA, car manufacturers and European directive on renewable energies.
TotalEnergies has been working on this biofuel for eighteen months to create this formula of wine residues, ETBE (Ethyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) – itself a 100% renewable component – and a pack of additives from Excellium technology. The application of this 100% renewable fuel in a race series is a huge step in the right direction for eco-friendly racing and the ability to keep motorsport going whilst also doing its part to protect the planet.
“We are particularly proud to introduce this 100% renewable fuel in competition,” Pierre-Gautier Caloni, Vice President of TotalEnergies’ motorsport division said. “It is a major milestone in the partnership between TotalEnergies and the Automobile Club de L’Ouest, whose strategy of promoting sustainable development is in line with our Company’s ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, together with society.”
Frédéric Lequien, CEO of the WEC added: “We are delighted to be the first global motorsport championship in which every competitor will run on 100% renewable fuel. The new Excellium Racing 100 fuel from TotalEnergies will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of our series and our partnership with TotalEnergies allows us to be a pioneer in this field.”
It is not predicted for the change in fuel to be detected or have any impact on the racing this weekend. If this is the case, more race series will have to increase their attention to this field, because if sports cars can race for 24 hours using this fuel at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they should have no issues using a similar solution in their race series.
