Axel May 8:36 a.m., October 25, 2021

FORMULA 1, QUARTARARO, MOTO GP, LIGUE 1, ENVORONNEMENT - Motorsports are achieving audience records this year (sometimes more viewers than Ligue 1).

They are back this Sunday with a Formula 1 Grand Prix in Austin (United States) and the Moto GP in Italy, which saw the French Fabio Quartararo become world champion.

But these sports do not always have a good press in the face of environmental challenges.

Aware of the stakes, the circuits are trying to adapt.

And it's not just a question of image. 

DECRYPTION

How to combine an overpowered engine and respect for the environment?

This is the question that motorsports are trying to answer, with Formula 1 and the Moto GP coming back in mind this Sunday.

So, to respond to environmental challenges, the circuits are trying to go green and no, it's not just a communication blow.

Llamas in the Haut-Rhin 

In eastern France, the Rhine rings circuit is equipped with llamas.

They stroll along the track and act as a brush cutter, a facet that the director of French Fabio Quartararo is delighted with is the Alsatian track Joshua Reibel: "I don't know an elected official who came to the circuit without wanting to take his photo with the lamas. It is a tool for promoting our environmental actions but it is not communication. Of course, we have motor vehicles on the track, but we are doing everything we can to compensate, to have win-win ideas. "

Tire recycling in the Var

Ecology can also become a business.

Recycling tires at the Paul Ricard circuit, which has hosted the French Grand Prix since 2018 in Formula 1, contributes significantly to the track's turnover, as CEO Stéphane Clair explains: "Today there is a regulatory obligation to reprocess the tires. We traded them. At the end of the meetings, the circuit itself collects the tires on site and then takes them for recycling. "

A sign of the changing times, the motorcycling and motor sport federations have just taken part in an interministerial meeting on the theme of noise, which people living near the circuits often prefer to call noise pollution.