INDustRY NEWs
ebastian Vettel was the star of his ‘Race
without Trace’ drive at the 2023 Goodwood
Festival of Speed with his use of fossil free
P1 sustainable fuel. The fuel powered his 1992
Williams and 1993 McLaren F1 cars that took
Nigel Mansell to the world championship and
Ayrton Senna to his final Monaco race win re-
spectively. With no new CO2 emissions coming
from the synthetic P1 fuel in the iconic race cars,
the four-time F1 World Champion is proving on
a world stage that any petrol-powered car can
run on sustainable fuel. These cars can be driv-
en without releasing any further CO2 into the at-
mosphere and without any modification to the
engine.
Having won 53 Grands Prix with contempo-
rary prototype cars, Vettel is now spearheading
a new approach to saving the environment by his
use of P1 Fuels both at Goodwood and at the Red
Bull Formula Nurburgring in September. In front
of a capacity crowd on Sunday, the German took
people back in time to the early 1990s battles
between Mansell and Senna with his immaculate
cars and cool Senna replica crash helmet. After
which, he spoke to the crowd on site and to the
world through the live stream TV about how im-
portant it is that we all push for environmental
change with synthetic fuels.
The jaw dropping Fiat S70 ‘Beast of Turin’ from
1910, with its staggering 28-litre four-cylinder
engine, also ran on P1 fuel. Together with a 1907
Mercedes Benz, this shows that a 21st century pi-
oneering fuel can be used in a car that’s 116 years
old. Duncan Pittaway said at Goodwood, “We did a
test with the Fiat before we got here to Goodwood
and what we’ve found is that it starts on the crank-
ing handle easier, runs smoother, cooler and uses
less fuel for the runs we’ve been doing here com-
pared to previous years. It really is quite amazing.”
Ben Collings drove the 1907 Mercedes Benz
with his familiar gusto up the famous hill climb
and said, “In the run up to the Festival, we did
a back-to-back test with the P1 fuel against our
existing fuel and what we found was that the en-
gine ran smoother for us which is fantastic. That
we’re reducing further CO2 emissions is the way
forward not just for motorsport but for everyday
cars too, so to be part of that here this weekend
is a proud moment for all of us.”
The entire P1 Fuels team worked long hours
to showcase the e-fuels on the world stage with
CEO Martin Popilka experiencing a never-to-for-
get ride in the P1 powered Beast of Turin up the
hill climb, “To be showing the world that P1 Fuel
can run across a range for cars from the 1900s
to the 1990s Williams and McLaren right up to a
WRC Toyota with someone as passionate about
the environment as Sebastian Vettel behind the
wheel has made it another milestone in step-
ping towards a world with less CO2 emissions
thanks to our synthetic fuel. To be running our
fuel in the Beast of Turin is ultimate proof of the
flexibility of the fuel across in such an incredible
engine over a century old. I can say after being a
passenger in the Beast of Turin up the hill climb
that we certainly have a future continuing to en-
joy old racing cars with technology that will be
part of our future - an experience I will never
forget!”
P1 Fuels supplies all the runners in the FIA
World Rally Championship and the FIA Karting
Championship with sustainable fuel. In addition
to this, the Mercedes Benz Museum cars on the
Mille Miglia and supercars on the 2023 Gumball
Rally are supplied by P1 Fuels too.
Versatility of sustainable
fuels demonstrated
10
www.automobil.co.za
August 2023