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6th June 2007

Monday’s edition of Scotland’s Herald newspaper included an article calling for a ban on motorsport. A letter from the communications manager of the FIA, the governing body of international motorsport, was published in Tuesday’s Herald in response.

In the article journalist James Porteous wrote, “Motorsport is the most wasteful, harmful, pointless leisure pursuit on the planet.

“F1 cars emit around 1500g of carbon dioxide per kilometre, almost nine times more than the average new road vehicle. Add in the hundreds of flights every team uses between testing and races and one recent estimate put each driver's carbon emissions for the eight-month season at 54 tonnes: more than 10 times as much as the average Briton emits in a year. That's not even counting other factors, such as the teams that have two wind tunnels running 24/7.

“The faster the car, the faster it destroys the Earth - simple. Winning races and saving the planet are not compatible.”

The letter from FIA communications manager Mark Cutler characterized the article as “uneducated conclusions” and added that the “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.”

To read the full article visit www.theherald.co.uk/sport/theback4/display.var.1444283.0.0.php

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