MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

In the first two parts of this interview with MotoGP Director of Technology Corrado Cecchinelli, we talked about the proposals for changes to the engine specifications to help reduce the speeds of MotoGP bikes, and Cecchinelli explained the perils of having aerodynamics play too big a role in the sport. Those areas will only be decided for the 2027 season however, when the next rules package comes in.

At the moment, we are still in the proposal stage, with Dorna and the manufacturers negotiating a package that will improve safety, with an eye on cost reduction and sustainability. A final set of rules is unlikely to be agreed between Dorna, the FIM, and the MSMA before the end of 2024.

One rule has already been agreed between all three parties, however. From 2024, the MotoGP bikes will have to use fuel that has been sourced from non-fossil sources. In 2024, that proportion will be 40%, with a switch to 100% non-fossil fuels from 2027.

Here, again, the terminology is tricky. At the Grand Prix of The Americas, I spoke at some length with Tomek Young of Mobil 1, KTM's technical partner for fuel and oil. Mobil 1 are creating synthetic fuels and lubricants on a molecular basis, combining chemicals in special processes to create fuels and lubricants tailored at very specific needs. Lubricants are especially interesting for KTM's MotoGP project, with the more stable oils Mobil 1 created for KTM allowing them to run the RC16 at higher temperatures without losing power due to friction, and producing a 1% gain in power due to reduced friction.

Mobil 1 are working on assembling fuels almost atom by atom, and are using carbon sourced from various processes to create the hydrocarbon molecules which engines burn as fuel. Mobil 1 are using so-called non-fossil carbon sources, which is basically taking carbon from products which were not extracted from the ground by drilling or mining.

There are several different sources of carbon for fuel. There is fossil fuel, the oil and gas produced from fossilized plant and animal remains. There are plant-based fuels, such as ethanol, produced from sources such as corn or plant waste. And there are fuels produced by capturing carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into hydrocarbons using energy-consuming chemical processes.

The objective of MotoGP's new fuel rules is to use carbon-neutral fuel. That is, to not use fuel extracted from fossil sources. That would allow the use of fuels produced using plant-based sources, or fuels produced using carbon captured from the air. Policing that is somewhat difficult, as the easiest way to check what a particular hydrocarbon fuel is made of is by checking the ratio of different carbon isotopes.

Fossil fuels and plant fuels have different ratios of carbon-14 and carbon-12. C-14 is produced in the stratosphere by cosmic rays and is radioactive, decaying over time, so fossil fuels have no C-14 as they have been stored underground for millions of years. Plant fuels have small amounts of C-14, as plants capture C-14 from the atmosphere.

Fuels created by carbon capture, however, are more complicated. They use the carbon captured from the air, much of which has come from carbon dioxide emitted as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. That means it is very difficult to tell the difference between fuels created from fossil sources, and fuels created from carbon captured from the air.

Sustainable fuels

Cecchinelli prefers the term 'sustainable fuels' for this reason. The point is for MotoGP manufacturers to learn about the intricacies and complexities of using fuels which were created without drilling up the remains of dead dinosaurs (mostly phytoplankton and zooplankton, to be more pedantic). And for fuel suppliers to experiment with ways of producing hydrocarbons in a carbon-neutral way.

After the announcement of the switch to sustainable fuels in 2021, in a previous interview with Cecchinelli, he had mentioned that he expected the sustainable fuels to have a measurable impact on performance, at least once fuels were 100% sustainable. Progress in that area has been rapid, as the world has focused a lot of scientific and engineering effort into producing these fuels.

"That's normal," MotoGP's Director of Technology responded when I put that to him. "First thing to say is that it was expected not to make a big difference, or any difference at all with 40%, but we expect to still make a difference with 100% sustainable fuel. This is the first point to mention. Second point is you're right in saying that at the moment, it is to be expected that the 2024 fuels will make basically no difference when compared to today, but what if not? You don't know."

With the current state of technology, sustainable fuels won't be making the bikes any faster in 2024. "It's reasonable to say that there will not be any increase in performance because of fuel next year, which is something that we could not count on if all was like today. So for me it's still something to be guaranteed that there will not be an evolution for fuels in next year."

Cecchinelli addressed the matter of policing that 40% sustainable fuel content by pointing to the complexities involved. "I know and can tell you what we are doing in '24. I'm not sure this will apply in '27, or I'm pretty sure it won't. So what we are doing is this: at some point, you have to say what you mean by sustainable fuel, and once you've done that, you have to say how you measure sustainability."

You have to start from a basic definition, he explained. "So first of all, a sustainable fuel for us is a fuel that has an imposed fraction that doesn't come from oil refining. This is our definition of sustainable. Which is not obvious or trivial. So it is already a statement. We mean a fuel that is, partly or fully from 2027 not obtained by refining oil. This is the definition. Then, you have to ensure that is done."

Policing now and then

From 2024, policing will be done by analyzing the ratio of carbon isotopes, Cecchinelli said. "For this first step, there was an initial statement of 40% of the fuel shall be sustainable. Which again you have to put in numbers, because what does that mean? So the physical translation is, 40% of the total carbon content shall contain C-14 which is young carbon. Which, in principle and in practice is not coming from oil, or fossil sources. So let's say, it's not from fossil origin."

Fuel samples will be checked to ensure they contain the levels of C-14 you would expect to find if made from sustainable carbon sources, Cecchinelli explained. " We are checking the amount of C-14, and ensuring it matches 40% or above of sustainable fuels. This is what we are doing in '24, without any other prescription." Where that fuel comes from will not be checked. "So it can be achieved by a bio fraction, it can be achieved by a synthetic fraction, it can be achieved by a mix of both. And whatever. Anything else is open."

There is a major drawback to verifying using C-14 content, however: it heavily favors the use of plant-based feedstock over carbon-capturing. "The problem with this definition, which is not a deal breaker in '24, but I think will be in '27, is that by just saying that, you make it easier to use biosources, because they contain only the young carbon. Whereas if you make a synthetic fuel, it all depends on where do you take the carbon from? Because if you take it from car exhaust - which is noble, if you want, you most probably will end up with old fossil carbon."

The objective of MotoGP's push toward sustainable fuels is to prove that internal combustion engines powered by fuel from non-fossil sources can work, even in such an extreme environment as racing at the very highest level. The objective is to help develop a drop-in replacement for fossil fuels, one which does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Fuel made from bio feedstock is one option, but not the only one. For example, extracting carbon from already emitted CO2 and turning it into fuel again is a very useful way of remaining carbon neutral. Introducing a system of verification which inherently favors fuels from one sources runs counter to that.

Cecchinelli explains: "So if you are taking, for example, from the air, for instance, which is the best way for the environment, the best thing you can do is go from a car exhaust and take it from there. You must probably take fossil carbon, which would be ruled out if we say 100% must be young carbon."

Capturing previously emitted carbon would be one of the most positive ways of achieving net zero emissions. "I even go to the extent to say that that would be the best thing you could do! If you can capture carbon from old fossil fuels that is the best option," Cecchinelli insists.

Nothing is set yet, as the rules are still to be defined for 2027 and beyond. "I don't have any answer yet, but I think in 2027, we will have to say something like, it is forbidden to have any fraction of fossil origin. So you have to prove that either it comes from biosources, or from synthetic origin," he says. "This is a step I think we need to do, we will have to do. Because otherwise, it is not fair between the two concepts, and it is not respecting the choice of the fuel supplier."

Trusting the process

Verifying that fuels are compliant is going to be much more difficult, Cecchinelli explains. Testing for C-14 is already a step beyond what the FIM does for existing fuels, and lab testing may prove impossible for fully synthetic fuels made from captured carbon. "I can tell you that C-14 testing is more complicated than what we are doing at the moment, so not all the laboratories can do that. So it requires a little more effort."

In the long run, Cecchinelli is open to using self-certification for the fuels being used. Under this scheme, fuel suppliers would certify that the process they use to produce the fuels does not include fossil fuel sources, despite containing some amount of "old" carbon as a result of the carbon capture process.

Because of the complexity and scale of fuel production, it does mean that there has to be trust in the process of self-certification. "Somehow you have to ensure that self-certification actually proves something," Cecchinelli says, before pointing out the size of the players involved and the reputational risk involved in being found cheating. "It is my opinion that considering the big players we are talking about, nobody will be cheating with the self-certification. But of course, one thing is laboratory testing, one thing is self-certification."

Why is MotoGP looking at sustainable fuels, when the series already has MotoE, racing electric bikes powered by electricity generated as far as possible from renewable sources? "The reason why I personally and we as a sport are keen on working on fuels is to show the world, to prove that there is an alternative," Cecchinelli says.

There has to be an alternative to relying on electricity for everything, he insists. "For me, the world should realize there are alternatives because it is not true that we could all go on electricity. This is simply not true. If it was like today, nobody could get home tomorrow after leaving the paddock. So that must be understood."

This is something which Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali brought up at the Ducati MotoE presentation in the summer of 2022. Domenicali, as part of the European motorcycle manufacturers assembled in ACEM, has made representations to the European Commission to extend the use of combustion engines after the planned ban from 2035. Together with pressure from German automakers, this has met with partial success.

"Claudio is a very smart guy, and a very good friend of mine," Cecchinelli says. The Italian left Ducati at the end 2011 before joining Dorna to become Director of Technology. "So I'm sure he also agrees that if you replace digging oil with digging special materials for batteries, and are also forced to scrap a perfectly functional internal combustion-powered vehicle ahead of time, you are doing nothing good for the environment. Then there is the challenge of generating and distributing all of the electrical energy required to fully replace internal combustion with electricity. So we strongly believe and I personally strongly believe in proving there's something else we could do."

This is important because MotoGP is bigger than just 22 motorcycles racing on track. The footprint of a MotoGP event includes getting the bikes to and from the event, everyone needed to make it happen, and everyone at home watching. The goal is to have an impact on the wider world, by helping make sustainable fuels a viable prospect.

"Reducing the event footprint is good, but this is nothing," Cecchinelli points out. "Because the easiest way to reduce pollutions for MotoGP events would simply be not to race MotoGP, you know? That would be easy. If you just delete the event."

Beyond MotoGP

Abandoning MotoGP altogether would be to miss an opportunity to have a much wider impact beyond just the racing, however. The objective of MotoGP's switch to sustainable fuels is to allow petrochemical companies and vehicle manufacturers to test carbon-neutral fuels and the vehicles which run on them. MotoGP is supposed to be a hotbed of engineering R&D, which will filter down into consumer applications.

That has happened many times before with technologies developed in MotoGP. Michelin's dual compound road tires were developed in grand prix motorcycling. Engine allocation rules mean that engines now last 1200km instead of 300km, and the lessons learned there have passed down to production engines. Combustion efficiency, fuel efficiency is learned in MotoGP. HRC's former Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto told me that one thing Honda learned from MotoGP was throttle and engine response at partial throttle openings, which is where most motorcycles on the road spend rough 99% of their time.

So the knock-on effects of switching to sustainable fuels have massive potential. "We are proud to say that we would like to overcome the event footprint by thousands of times, by promoting technologies for the future," Cecchinelli insists. "Okay, we are burning 20 liters of fuel per rider. But we are proving you can make a very good engine running on a fuel that doesn't come from fossil origin."

The risk is that short-term harms are weighed more heavily than long-term benefits, Cecchinelli says. "Sometimes we are I think blamed for silly things like, okay, but your trucks use a lot of fuel to move from one track to another... Yes, okay, it's just like saying that you should shut university laboratories because they have the lights on all night studying. I mean, it's the cost of the development, but if the result is something like for instance, as I said, proving that you can run on fuels have a neutral or negative carbon balance over the complete cycle. I mean, this is a huge statement, even if you had to move a truck to prove that."

Though the short-term change to the MotoGP rules is for the bikes in all three classes to be running on carbon-neutral fuels, that is only part of the story of MotoGP's decision to pursue this objective. The bigger reason behind all of this is to play a part in creating a sustainable future.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting MotoMatters.com. You can help by either taking out a subscription, supporting us on Patreon, by making a donation, or contributing via our GoFundMe page. You can find out more about subscribing to MotoMatters.com here.