Carbon fiber has been an integral part in the design of an F1 car for over forty years now, especially since 1981 when McLaren built the pioneering MP4/1, a single-seater which featured a monocoque made of carbon. From that moment on, engineers began to better understand the characteristics of this material, trying to explore its peculiarities to adapt certain car components to the specific requests in terms of flexibility or weight.
But the use of carbon fiber also poses risks to the environment: its demand is expected to double in the next ten years and studies estimate that around 30% of the material ends up as waste during the production process. For this reason, over the last few years McLaren has focused heavily on progress in sustainability by seeking alternative ways to create certain components of the car.
For example, in 2020, together with the company Bcomp, the British team had produced a seat made from renewable textile fibres. In that case, by optimizing the mechanical properties of the flax fibers through the fabric architecture, it was possible to create a seat with the strength and rigidity required for racing, but with a CO2 footprint 75% lower than its carbon fiber counterpart.
McLaren recycled carbon fibre
Photo by: McLaren
Now McLaren has decided to take it a step further, teaming up with specialist company V Carbon to trial the use of recycled carbon fiber on its MCL60. The recycled material will be used for the first time on the side panels of the cockpit of the cars driven by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a test that will be carried out at the next United States Grand Prix.
If the trial in Austin is successful, McLaren intends to keep the recycled material on its cars for the rest of the current season to evaluate its sustainability and performance. In fact, as explained by McLaren itself, at the moment the product made by V Carbon offers up to 85% of the original resistance of carbon fibre, so further tests will also be useful to understand its possible applications. With our eyes on a more long-term scenario, however, there is the idea of extending the use of recycled carbon fiber to other elements on future cars, but clearly from this point of view it will be necessary to record a large quantity of data to evaluate all the characteristics and effects in sensitive areas of the single-seater.
By exploring the use of recycled carbon fibre, McLaren hopes it has taken the first step towards “developing a fully circular F1 car by 2030”, i.e. a car that can be built from recycled materials: “We are proud to partnering with V Carbon to lead the way in sustainable materials, using recycled carbon fiber at the Austin GP,” said Piers Thynne, COO of McLaren F1.
McLaren has started a collaboration for the use of recycled carbon fibre
Photo by: McLaren
“The potential future applications of recycled carbon fiber are extremely exciting. V Carbon offers up to 85% of the original strength of carbon fibre, making it strong enough for a range of applications in F1 and beyond. We will continue to work closely contact with the FIA, F1 and other teams to help accelerate change.”
Kim Wilson, McLaren’s director of sustainability, added: “The development of a fully circular F1 car is our goal. We know that innovation in this area has the potential to make a great contribution to achieving our ambitious goals of sustainability. Using recycled carbon fiber in key parts of the F1 car at this year’s US GP and analyzing their performance on the track is a key step in reducing the company’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. our car production.”
McLaren’s initiative is part of F1’s push to reduce its carbon footprint to zero by 2030: according to what the team declared, the use of recycled carbon fiber would lead to a 90% reduction in emissions across the entire cycle of life compared to standard carbon fibre, the equivalent of 27 tonnes of emissions for every tonne of carbon used.
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