The objective of achieving an ever higher level of sustainability in Formula 1 also involves a more careful use of materials. And it is precisely from this perspective that the collaboration between Racing Bulls and Herambientethe company of Hera Group under public control which deals with environmental services in Emilia-Romagna: starting from the next Imola GP, on the VCARB01s of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo they will installed front wing flaps made through the use of recycled carbon fiber molds. An innovation that seems of little importance, but which will allow the team to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 150 tons in a year: a saving similar to what could be achieved by planting around 4,000 new trees.
RECYCLED MOLDS
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It is well known that carbon fiber constitutes the essence of a Formula 1 car. Less well known is that, in addition to the composite material used to create the aerodynamic and chassis components, each team uses approximately 50% of the total carbon used each year to create the molds necessary to produce the parts of each machine. It is precisely these molds that have a relatively short life cycle, because they are disposed of at the end of the production cycle. The partnership between the Faenza team and the Hera group will instead allow the molds to be made not with “new” carbon but with that recovered from previous molds that are now disused.
Circular economy
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Starting from the next Emilia-Romagna GP, the home race for the Racing Bulls team, the Faenza team will therefore supply the materials to be disposed of to Herambiente, which will then take care of recycling an ever-increasing quantity of carbon to make the molds , applying pyrogasification to processing waste: a technique that can be repeated infinitely and which allows the carbon fibers to be separated from the other resins, regenerating a fiber with performances comparable to the new product. A closed cycle that will help the team achieve a circular economy objective, saving money and raw materials, with clear benefits for the environment: in Imola, for example, the flaps of the front wings will be made thanks to recovered material and will allow the recovery of the 80% in terms of emissions for the production of the single component. The dream of a more sustainable F1, which has set itself the ambitious goal of zeroing out net C02 emissions by 2030, also passes through here.
