F1
As part of F1’s major regulation overhaul this year, cars will run on advanced sustainable fuels after years of development by the grid’s suppliers;watch every round of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports F1, starting with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6-8
Thursday 22 January 2026 11:23, UK
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“One tank of this fuel could power an average detached home for three to four weeks.”
Formula 1 has undergone the most radical regulation change in the sport’s history over the winter ahead of a 2026 season when the latest generation of cars are set to look – and race – differently to their predecessors.
But while much of the early focus of ‘launch season’ has been on the changes to chassis and engines, there’s another significant change amid the sport’s rules revolution – and that’s to fuels.
The headline there is that the cars will run on advanced sustainable fuels rather than conventional petrol for the first time in the sport’s history, another step on F1’s road towards becoming Net Zero by 2030.
But what exactly does that mean, how are they produced and what is the impact for the sport?
To try and demystify the topic and explain the complex work completed by the grid’s fuel suppliers to get ready for the sport’s new, more sustainable era, Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft sat down with Matti Alemayehu, the global motorsport technology manager at ExxonMobil – the supplier of fuels and lubricants to Red Bull and Racing Bulls – to learn more…
So what exactly are sustainable fuels – and what’s changed for 2026?
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“If you look at the regulation that the FIA has put out, it’s one of the most significant changes or mandates in F1 history.
“That is because the fuel is transitioning from fossil fuel to fuel derived from advanced sustainable sources.
“The sources are considered to be second-generation waste. So it’s really scraping waste off of waste and developing a product from that to go into the races.
“So you’re synthesising molecules and optimising the performance to help you meet the requirement of the FIA mandate, as well as helping the team win the race.”
What do the regulations allow you to create?
“What the FIA is basically stating is you can use sources that are second-generation. The message is if you can eat it, don’t burn it, so that it doesn’t compete with the food source.
“In addition to that, the supply chain and the process must have a greater than 65 per cent Greenhouse Gas emission reduction.
“So that allows you to basically find very limited waste like manure, forestry waste, switchgrass-type combinations and mixtures of waste, to derive the fuel from it.
“What it doesn’t allow you to do is use fossil-based sources.”
So say it was a banana skin, for example. The bit where the banana touched, you can’t use that. But the peel on the other side that we never eat, you can touch that?
“Exactly. It’s really something that will not be used as a food source because you don’t want it to compete with something that people would eat.
“But there are very limited sources. So you’re really finding that second-generation waste in the right quantity to be able to supply it.
“There is a lot of waste but it’s finding the mixture that allows you to synthesise the molecule that would meet the requirement and then also optimise your combustion for the performance.
“You have to go around finding the right type of waste to get you the right molecule combination.”
So it’s a bit like Doc Brown in Back to the Future Part II? Where he flies in, he goes into the rubbish bin and he throws a few bits away but then he focuses on some bits in the rubbish bin, then sticks it into the car and off it flies.
“That’s right!
“But it’s not easy. It looks easy in the movies!”
How many years has it taken to develop the 2026 fuel?
“It’s taken us three years to develop the fuel as soon as the initial FIA mandate was outlined and it has taken 75 people across ExxonMobil to develop this fuel.
“If you think about our lubricant business, our fuels business, chemicals, as well as our catalyst, we have the privilege of pulling on those expertise to allow us to answer this engineering question.
“So quite a lot of people, and if you think about the iterative process that you have to go through to develop it, we’ve gone through a hundred-plus formulations and really going back and forth between us and the Red Bull team, testing it and tweaking it.
“I’m happy to say that we’ve met the requirement and we’re ready for the season. We had the fuel ready and certified to go as early as the fourth quarter of 2025.
“We have pulled on our experience from other motorsports, such as MotoGP and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. The extent of the ask from the FIA requirement in F1, that’s where it gets a bit more advanced and the ask is to make sure you pull fully from an advanced source.”
To run the Red Bull and Racing Bulls teams, how much fuel do you need for a season? Have you worked that out yet?
“If you think about what the regulation is asking for in 2026 versus 2025, it’s pulling a lot from the hybrid side of the vehicle – 50 per cent of the power is coming from that, so there’s less fuel utilisation.
“So I would say about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the fuel that we use for 2025 would be what goes into 2026.”
And what about the difference in performance compared to 2025?
“It’s not apples to apples comparison because there’s a mix of things that have changed as part of the regulation – hybrid being leveraged more – but we’re very confident with the performance of the fuel.
“To give you a relatable example, one tank of this fuel could power an average detached home for about three to four weeks.
“That’s really the power you’re targeting.”
Where does this development in sustainable fuel all lead?
“So if you look at what we’re doing now in the team, we’re developing 2027 products.
“So we’re developing the lubricant as well as the fuel and we’re continuing to push performance boundaries. That will depend on what happens in the future if specification changes but we’re currently in the development phase.”
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Has this got road car relevance?
“Right now, no, but in the future, potentially, as we continue to have optimisation to the supply chain. Sourcing the material to create the fuel is a bit challenging because of the limited source to make it in a quantity that would be applicable to road vehicles. We’ll need to have optimisation down to the supply chain.”
And what has the cost been like?
“It was three years, hundreds of formulations, about 75 people across the company – so it is a lot of investment in people and testing, so I would say it’s a big investment.”
So given the work that has gone into it, there is going to be a cause for celebration amongst the chemist benches when the first Red Bull powertrain wins a race with your fuel?
“Dozens of scientists worked on this so there’s a lot of pride in the product that we’ve developed.
“We’re very confident in its performance and we’re happy that it meets the requirements, so there’s going to be a lot of celebration once the team wins.”
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