Motorsport fans have always associated this sport with the roar of engines, the smell of gasoline and tires burning on the asphalt. However, in a society increasingly concerned about the preservation of our planet and the reduction of the carbon footprint, a new model is now imposed that manages to face the challenge of sustainability without giving up one iota of all the emotion and the spectacle that only Formula 1 can offer.
Technological development in the automotive world confirms that it is increasingly feasible to achieve this goal. In fact, important steps have already been taken in directions such as the development of more efficient engines and the use of more sustainable fuels, which show that the motor sport sector can be a good ally in the fight for environmental protection.
The first advances have allowed that, since 2014, F1 cars are already 30% more efficient in fuel consumption. And by 2026, the industry plans to introduce a new engine that will be carbon neutral, using the most advanced sustainable fuel on the market.
An increasingly present future that Banco Santander wants to be a part of. For this reason, within the framework of his return to Formula 1, he has kicked off the Santander X Global Challenge | Countdown to Zero. It is a global challenge that aims to find innovative and sustainable solutions for the automotive world in different areas such as mobility, logistics and transport or alternatives to offset carbon emissions.
This initiative, promoted jointly by Santander and Formula One Management (FOM), the group responsible for promoting the F1 World Championship, is aimed at encouraging proposals that contribute to the sustainable development of the automotive industry created by startups and scaleups from 11 countries: Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, United States, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, United Kingdom and Uruguay. The call will remain open until next September 8 so that all interested companies can present their projects in three different categories.
The first, called On the Track, serves to encompass initiatives related to the future of "zero emissions" sustainable mobility. The second, On the Move, is aimed at all those who want to provide solutions that serve to increase environmental sustainability in the field of logistics and transport, whether by road, sea or air. Finally, Balance to Zero proposes to generate innovative alternatives that serve to offset the carbon footprint.
Among all the projects presented, six winners will be chosen who will receive a total of 120,000 euros in prizes. Of these, 30,000 will go to the winning startups (to be divided among three equal parts) and the other 90,000 will go to the three best scaleups (with 30,000 euros for each of them).
In addition, all the winners will have direct access to Santander X 100, the exclusive global entrepreneurial community of the most outstanding projects of Santander X that "is helping thousands of entrepreneurs to take their ideas further and faster", in the words of Juan Manuel Cendoya, Director of Communications, Corporate Marketing and Studies at Santander Group, and which allows connecting with all those valuable resources that this type of company needs to continue growing, such as advice and training, capital, clients, talent or networking, among others .
Santander X Global Challenge | Countdown to Zero is a good example of Banco Santander's determination to fight climate change, supporting the goals of the Paris Agreement and setting itself the ambitious goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
A will that has led Banco Santander, an entity that has decidedly committed to leadership in the fight against climate change, to return to F1 through a new agreement with Ferrari announced a few months ago, which includes different initiatives to help that the legendary Italian Scuderia achieves its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030.
The financial institution's lines of action in the field of sustainability involve supporting its customers in the green transition, reducing the environmental impact by opting for renewable energy sources, integrating climate considerations into risk management frameworks and guaranteeing the compliance with regulatory and supervisory expectations.
All this is also demonstrated in the exponential increase in the amount disbursed and facilitated in “green financing”, from 19 billion euros in 2019 to 65.7 billion in 2021. By 2030, they expect this figure to increase to 220 billion euros.
In the automotive field, Santander has extensive experience in financial advice to companies working on the development of vehicles that use renewable energy or low-carbon, high-performance batteries. Its alliance with Scuderia Ferrari represents a new fundamental step for the premier category of automobile competitions to be a true reflection of a society that is increasingly committed to preserving the planet.
And it is that, as its president, Ana Botín, has explained, "Santander, as the main European provider of financing for the automobile industry, is determined to support this sector in its process of ecological transformation". Although the final goal of neutrality is set for 2030, the idea is that F1 can progressively accelerate towards a "green competition" model that maintains all the spectacularity of always with cars that are equally fast, but that pollute less and less.
