I am appalled and dismayed at the naivety of James Porteous' article (Back4 debate, May 4).

Did he call any F1 teams or speak to anyone from the FIA before arriving at his uneducated conclusions?

FIA is actively encouraging new ecologically-friendly rules in the FIA Formula One World Championship. These will not just benefit the sport but the entire automotive industry in the fight against climate change and the promotion of environmentally-efficient technology.

There are strong links between Formula One and the automotive industry with technology developed in the sport often finding its way into road cars. President Max Mosley has been working to strengthen these by ensuring future developments will be both environmentally-friendly and road-relevant.

F1 has always been at the cutting edge of technology and will continue to be with energy-efficient systems such as regenerative braking and biofuels. In this way, F1 will act as a catalyst to speed up the development and use of eco-technology on our roads.

Mark Culter
Communications Manager,
FIA



  • As pointed out in the piece, biofuels are more harmful to the environment than normal fuels. What percentage of the fuel would be ethanol in any case? How many miles to the gallon would the cars be doing? Sixty? One hundred? Or three or four? Also, these vague proposals are just that at the moment and even if they are ratified, the unspecified "sweeping changes" will not come into effect until 2011. As I said in the piece, this is greenwash.