Should Motor Racing be banned

[cdtaylornats]

Just that, we have politicians planning to ban the internal combustion engine from our roads but nothing about racetracks.

The explanation for motor racing is often stated as trickle down of improvements - so should the car racers be forced to use electric engines?

Ban the whole thing cos it’s boring.

There is Formula E already. Presumably the use of petrol engines in motorsports will dwindle at the same rate as for regular drivers.

The people who run motor racing are investing heavily in Formula E / Moto E so that they're ready for this eventuality.

GoFiguire motorsport makes big money and the more the sport invests in developing alternative engines, the more this will filter down into cars and motorcycles for everyone. If you don't like it just don't watch it, but banning it would be counter-intuitive.

What about all the flights they catch?

In terms of person hours of entertainment per grammes of carbon emitted I’d be surprised if motor racing, even Formula 1 is that much more inefficient than the Rugby World Cup or Game of Thrones, or the Grand National. It’s just noisier. Either we give it all up and play charades (but only until it gets dark) or we allocate a certain amount of our energy budget to entertainment - so why not racing? And it does serve as a valuable spur to technological innovation.

Shifting to hybrid has killed F1.

You’d be better off banning dogs as pets and log burning stoves.