• WilliamsF1 made huge loss in 2006
• A1GP dumps Lola and Zytek for Ferrari
• New president for Porsche Motorsport North America
• Citroen commits to WRC
• Ratt Racing becomes latest EEMS campaign partner
• UK motorsport composites companies acquired
• IMechE Formula One lecture
• Company cars cut CO2 output by more than 40% in four years - ALD Automotive
• VW and Daimler invest in CHOREN Industries’ second-generation biodiesel

According to a report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper the Grove, UK based WilliamsF1 Formula One team made a substantial loss of $57 million in 2006.

WilliamsF1’s loss was attributed in large part to the ending of its agreement with BMW under which it had received free engines and the ending of its title sponsorship contract with Hewlett Packard at the end of 2005.

In 2006 Williams raced with customer Cosworth engines for which the team had to pay around $20m before signing a deal for Toyota engines starting in 2007.

The paper also points out that in 2005 WilliamsF1 had made a $60 million profit.

The organisers of the A1 Grand Prix one make single seater racing series that styles itself as the World Cup of Motorsport have confirmed a switch to Ferrari chassis and engines starting at the end of 2008.

A1GP chairman Tony Teixeira said, "Partnering with a world-class organisation like Ferrari will officially position A1GP as one of the most significant motorsport series' in the world.

"Ferrari will add significant value to our brand and in our opinion there is no better partner to progress the series. We will be meeting with our commercial partners over the next few weeks to discuss the multitude of exciting opportunities that this partnership presents.

"Ferrari has a global presence through its dealer network. We will be working closely with them to ensure that they are a part of every A1GP World Cup of Motorsport event."

The new arrangement is bad news for the UK motorsport industry as it will mean the end of the existing chassis supply deal with the Huntindgon, UK based constructor Lola Cars International and the end of the existing engine supply deal with the Derby, UK company Zytek Engineering.

Porsche Motorsport North America has confirmed the appointment of Paul Ritchie as its new president starting in March 2008.

Ritchie, succeeds Uwe Brettel, who will take over new responsibilities in the management of Porsche Motorsport in Weissach, Germany, and was previously CEO for Porsche Engineering Services.

French car manufacturer Citroen has committed itself to competing in the FIA World Rally Championship until at least 2009.

Citroen managing director Gilles Michel the Italian Autosprint magazine, "We are a dynamic company and our presence in the WRC fits perfectly with our image.

We'll be here in 2008 and also in 2009, with the objective of winning both the constructors' and the drivers' titles."

Michel also said that Citroen's future participation in the WRC beyond 2009 would depend on the level of competition in the championship and its coverage on television adding, "The TV coverage is still insufficient and with time this will become a problem."

The Torquay,UK based Ratt Racing Motorsport Engineering organisation has become the latest campaign partner of Motorsport Development UK’s Energy Efficient Motor Sport initiative.

Ratt Racing is demonstrating the positive impact of alternative fuels at the grass roots level of motorsport through the development of bioethanol powered competition cars. This includes campaigning its very successful Britax Mini Cooper, which was converted to run on bioethanol through a process of component testing early in 2007, in the Xtreme Mighty Mini, Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship and at the Power Nights events.

Driver Pete Crewes says, “I am delighted with the overall performance of the car and it demonstrates how any engine technology can be suited to conversion to become more environmentally friendly, with additional benefits”.

The UK based companies Amber Composites and Technical Resin Bonders, whose key markets include the motorsport industry, have been bought by a consortium of international investors

Commenting on the purchase of Nottingham based Amber Composites and Huntingdon based TRB Jonathan McQueen who headed the consortium said, “We chose these companies because of their proven product and technology expertise as well as their strong management teams. The use of composite materials is expanding rapidly and we are well-positioned to capitalise on this growth.”

Amber Composites manufactures and distributes a range of composite, tooling and adhesive products for a variety of applications within a diverse range of markets, including motorsport, automotive, aerospace and marine. Technical Resin Bonders reportedly was one of the original companies in the U.K. to manufacture honeycomb sandwich panels and continues to manufacture bonded assemblies, lightweight panel systems and composite structures.

The Midlands Automotive Division of the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers is holding a Formula One themed lecture at the University of Birmingham on October 25.

The lecture titled The Lifecycle of an F1 Car will be delivered by Nick Brown, of the Brackley, UK based Honda Racing Formula One team.

The lecture starts at 7pm and all interested parties are welcome attend.

Company cars are emitting more than 40% less carbon dioxide today than they were four years ago as fleets increasingly turn to low emission vehicles and reduce their annual mileages, according to analysis of vehicles added to ALD Automotive’s 47,000-strong fleet of 47,000 vehicles during the last five years.

Company cars delivered in January 2003 averaged 166.87 g/km of CO2; average annual mileage was 23,782 miles; and the average amount of CO2 emitted clocking up journeys was 6.43 tonnes per vehicle a year. By August 2007 company cars joining the fleet averaged 154.22 g/km of CO2 (7.6% less); average annual mileage had dropped to 15,139 - a cut of more than a third (36.4%) or 8,643 miles - with the amount of CO2 emitted averaging 3.79 tonnes, a reduction of 41.17% over 54 months.

The environmental impact of one person flying from London Heathrow to New York’s JFK Airport is calculated to be 0.61 tonnes of CO2. Therefore, the CO2 savings made by company car drivers taking delivery of a vehicle from ALD Automotive represent the equivalent of four fewer flights across the Atlantic by each person annually. Extrapolated across the UK’s company car fleet of 1.2 million vehicles [HM Revenue & Customs 2005/06 figure] this equates to a reduction of over three million tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere each year by company cars alone.

ALD Automotive is working towards obtaining international environmental management standard ISO 140001, and has recently added Honda Civic Hybrids to its pool fleet for use by customers as interim vehicles.

Volkswagen and Daimler have each acquired a minority shareholding in CHOREN Industries GmbH, based in Freiberg, to hasten the market introduction of BTL (biomass to liquid), a second-generation synthetic biofuel. Volkswagen and Daimler have been investigating potential applications, the economic feasibility and the energy balance of BTL jointly with CHOREN since 2002, envisaging an annual production capacity of some 200,000 metric tones of BTL.

CHOREN is currently building the world’s first commercial industrial- scale BTL plant (Beta plant) at its Freiberg site. From 2008, the plant is expected to produce approx. 15,000 tonnes of fuel a year,

sufficient to meet the annual requirements of some 15,000 cars.

CHOREN also plans to build the first reference plant in Germany, a ‘Sigma 1’ plant, with an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes. It is hoped to announce a decision on the location of such a plant by the end of the year. The planned Sigma plants have the potential to contribute significantly towards realizing the German government’s climate protection targets. 10 to 15 CHOREN BTL plants could save up to 3 million metric tons of CO2 by 2020.

“Volkswagen has been calling for and supporting the development and industrial production of second-generation biofuels, for a long time,” Dr. Wolfgang Steiger, Head of Group Research, Powertrains, underlined. “Compared with the first generation, these second-generation biofuels can in fact as much as triple hectare yields, they do not compete with food production and they help to reduce greenhouse gases by approx. 90%.”

VW and Daimler will also be stepping up cooperation to shape the framework for the sustainable market introduction of BTL fuels. “The realization of Sigma 1 needs a calculable and long-term perspective for the sale of BTL beyond 2015. Present considerations which are exclusively based on CO2 for established technologies will not be sufficient for introducing innovations,” CHOREN CEO Tom Blades commented.

BTL is produced from various types of biogenic feedstock and residue, and thus “hardly competes” with food and fodder production. No adjustment of existing fuel infrastructure is necessary for its distribution and storage and it is compatible with current as well as future diesel engine technology.

Volkswagen says the “socially, ecologically and economically-compatible” cultivation of organic resources for the production of second-generation biofuels could be achieved by taxation on biofuels oriented to both CO2 efficiency (primary criteria) and sustainability criteria such as the use of fertilizers or pesticides, the protection of rainforests, social standards and employment potential.