Motor sports?

[Costacoffeeplease]

As we’re all urged to fly less, drive less etc, how are motor sports still allowed and not openly criticised?

It’s not even just the actual races, but the flying of vehicles and people around the world?

Why is it ok for them but we ‘little people’ are made to feel guilty for one foreign holiday per year?

(I’m disabled and not able to travel at all, and barely use a car once a week)

I think there’s more than ‘the odd car race’.

Then there’s the flying everyone involved from one country to another, including the cars, motorbikes etc, I think that would be more than once a year?

So it would seem that all the various forms of motor racing would come under the 15% quoted above, which is said to be part of the problem?

Yes I agree with horse racing, dog racing and boxing, but I was trying to gauge the thoughts on motor sports on this thread

I certainly don’t drive round and round for hours then fly myself and my car plus a number of other people to another country or continent ad infinitum

The title of the thread is Motor Sports, which I thought was self explanatory

OK, if we have to stick strictly to motorsport. I think it's complicated actually. F1 for example is not just a huge industry in terms of money but supports a huge number of jobs. My son recently went on a trip to a local factory, it turns out one thing they produce is a specialist part for one of the F1 teams. In terms of science, technology and safety while the drive is certainly to be faster and win I think there are positive knock on impacts more widely. Engines becoming more efficient, learning more about aerodynamics, forces, impacts in crashes etc.

If you were to ban motorsport on the basis of the environmental impact, then I think you would need to ban social driving as well, as unnecessary carbon emissions. So I don't see how you could justify allowing motorhomes for example, as it's surely more environmentally friendly to travel by car and book a hotel. But at what point do you stop? It's obviously more environmentally friendly just to stay at home. What about travel to work? Should we all start homesteading?

There are teen dystopian novels on this topic and similar around a future world with restricted access to power or fuel.

I do think there are some forms of motorsport that aren't safe enough and should be banned - the motorbike races with big numbers etc, Indycar which just seems to involve crashing and running your pit crew over. (US don't do health and safety though, so I accept this one is a cultural thing and I guess you could argue pit crew know what they are getting into!)

I don’t believe motor homes are used in motor sports but perhaps they are?

Yes, Dd follows formula E (as well as Formula 1, 2, Academy & she’s involved in Formula Student. It’s a huge industry.

Sorry, I thought you wanted a real discussion, I misunderstood.

This 🤣

I titled it Motor Sports for a discussion on motor sports, it’s not difficult

We can talk whataboutery forever, but this thread is specifically about Motor Sports and whether they have a place in the current world.

They don’t achieve anything (except money 🥱), and feel, to me, like an anomaly akin to smoking on planes and in restaurants, but where the damage is to all of us, not just those in that plane or restaurant.

Will we look back and think WTF?

But there seems to be a disconnect for many people, which surprises me.

Motorsports in general, or just F1?

@Costacoffeeplease Of course the racing achieves things! Fun and pleasure for a start off.

Motor car design improvements we all benefit from are a good reason to support it. Safety being one of them. F1 cars are hybrids. Partly electric.

Few motor sports are truly world wide. Really only F1 and Rallying. The uk is a top builder of successful F1 teams. I think around 1000 employees each. They are top people and F1 and rallying are innovative with very talented people working for them.

These sports are very popular with Silverstone getting massive crowds for the GB F1. We transport many sporting teams and fans around the world. Thank god everything isn’t banned that we like.

In general

Then why are you saying things like this…

”Then there’s the flying everyone involved from one country to another, including the cars, motorbikes etc, I think that would be more than once a year”

Most motorsport doesn’t involve any international travel at all. It takes place at a local level.

Because that is part of it, it happens

It's a multi million Pound/ Euro/ Dollar industry.

Unless people stop spectating, participating or move to Formula E it's not going to change.

Even then, moving to Formula E will only save a few gallons of petrol the cars use during a race.

Any lots of them travel around the country in motorhomes, but apparently they don't count?
OP just doesn't seem to like motorsport and feels that getting rid of something she doesn't like will save the planet...
I love motorsport and think it should be way down the list of things to sort out to improve our carbon footprint, let's start with China + India's industries first shall we?

To be fair, I think there is a lot of travel involved in even grassroots motorsport. I live near a kart circuit and when there's a meeting on people come (in their motorhomes!)from all over the place. And we have friends whose kids have moved on from karting to higher level motorsport, both single seater and rallying and they are always away, either within the country or abroad.
However, you could say exactly the same for many other sports and pass times. Admittedly I didn't need a motorhome or a trailer to transport the kit for any of my DC's hobbies but I did drive many, many thousands of miles for competitions all over the country. In the couple of years before my youngest went to University it was a minimum of 400 miles a week just for training. We never went abroad but I know plenty who do. If you get good at a sport and want to pursue it you have to travel, full stop. The better you get the more you travel. And if it's a minority sport and you live outside a big city you're going to be on the road more. And not just sport - my other DC's dancing and music also involved a lot of travel.
Not sure why the OP has singled out motorsport. I'd hazard a guess that if you looked at the carbon footprint of say football it would be worse than motorsport simply because of the absolutely massive number of people who participate in some form or other. Life would be pretty miserable if all non essential travel and activity was banned. Of course we should look at where improvements can be made, both individually and as a society but if we're all going to hell in a hand cart I don't think we can really blame Max Verstappen.

And more whataboutery

This thread has been extremely illuminating, and frankly, disappointing

Do you have any actual evidence that motorsport should be a priority in terms of the environment OP?

Ok. Most motorsport events are not F1, or even F2/3/4 though.

There are tracks and races all over the country involving everything from a pretty modern Fiat to a 120 year old car.

Literally thousands of people across the country meet to chat about cars every week at tons of tracks.

Do you really think we just should…blanket ban all of that, while big industry kills the planet without any government pressing them to change?

Tell me the impact you think it’d really have, with numbers and facts.

Because people didn't agree with you?

Motorsports provides jobs, advertising and development for the industry. What would you like all the people who rely on this for income to do if it's banned for the sake of saving a bit of carbon emissions? It also provides entertainment for millions of people worldwide, but obviously not you.

In 2024, Formula 1 made significant investments in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) as part of its ultra-efficient logistics strategy. SAF delivers an estimated 80% reduction in associated carbon emissions per flight compared to the use of conventional aviation fuel.

Also, Taylor Swift is reportedly the biggest emitter on the list. With a total of 170 flights in the past seven months, Taylor's jet emitted more than 8,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, equates to 1,184.8 times more than the average person's total emissions in an entire year.

So musicians should be banned from touring outside their own country to save the planet, no?

But your entire premise is whataboutery. All you're saying in this entire thread is whatabout Motor Sports like it's a gotcha for something.
Pot, kettle. 🤷‍♀️
Pointless discussion really if you're not going to discuss anything.

There is a lot of work going on in motorsport to innovate, including environmental innovation - Example from British Touring Cars

I watch BTCC and Formula E and sometimes Extreme H. The joy of motorsport is that it is a team sport (it is about so much more than the driver) that is highly competitive but not tribal - the fans sit side by side regardless of who they support and behave sportingly to each other. There are obviously other sports like this but motor sport does it well.

My premise is, are motor sports relevant and acceptable in today’s world?

Other posters are introducing other topics, classic whataboutery.

If net zero is achieved by 2030, ok, but as I said earlier, I’ll wait and see.

As someone in their late 50s with no children, the coming decades are increasingly irrelevant to me, thank goodness, but for younger people with children/grandchildren I would have expected a bit more critical thought 🤷‍♀️