Liberty Media Group and Formula One (F1), your green initiative is 100% impotent and offensive

I am a F1 fan, have been for my entire life.  This year at COTA 2022 I had the dubious honor and opportunity to shake the hand of Mario Andretti.  The only American F1 champion EVER.  So COOL! 

I was at all three days of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) 2022 F1 extravaganza and I was seriously confused and disappointed when I saw on the schedule many places, that a military fly over was going to happen right after the singing of the American National Anthem on Sunday before the Grand Prix.  But, that military flyover never came.  I started asking other fans, what happened to the military flyover?  Was it weather?  Was there an equipment failure?  Why no military flyover? 

I was hoping for maybe a YF-22 or some F35s.  Heck I still get goose bumps when I see a F5, F14, F15, F16 or a F18 flying along side a C-17.   I would have been happy with a formation of Super Cobra,  Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters.  Why not have Lockheed Martin show off the New Raider X.  The Commemorative Air Force Centex Wing is in San Marcos TX about an hour drive from COTA is one of the largest collections of WWII plans in America.  Why no military flyover? 

I got some interesting answers.  The first and most prevalent was that Carlos Sainz had said something on social media about being green and F1 had caved to his social media demands to ban fly overs.  Hmmm… Sainz is a Spaniard and Spain declared non-belligerency during WW2, but I’m sure they are all happy to not be speaking German today.  I didn’t know that Carlos Sainz had that much stroke.  That didn’t seem to fit.  But, I’ll also say, I do not do social media, so what Carlos Sainz has said via social media, I am intentionally, blissfully and completely unaware of. 

Social media is a dumpster fire of narcissism, outrage, provocativeness, pedophilia, pornography and over reaching in every way, In My Humble Opinion (IMHO).  We actually have a debate about what a woman is in this world because of social media.  When did I get transferred inside the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?  I digress… which I tend to do.  So…

What was it really that had the military flyovers at F1 cease to exist?  Let the Googling begin! 

The fundamental question.  Why no military flyovers?  Here is what I found with my google search. 

Liberty Media Group F1 Bans Military Flyovers

During my questioning of fans about the military fly over, I also was informed of F1 is developing a completely sustainable fuel and its already being used in the cars.  As a person who had spent considerable years of my life in the fuel business, this was an amazing revelation to see that F1 had cracked that nut.  So, I went Googling for that information too.  Here is what I got

What is this mysterious sustainable fuel?  One fan said, I don’t know, but I know its 100% sustainable.  Oh ok.  We’ll what does Google have to say about that?

Oh wow, corn ethanol has somehow become sustainable?  Imagine that!  Glad Liberty Media Group and F1 said it because I was confused.  To be fair, ethanol has overcome observable truth in most realms as the savior of the internal combustion engine.  However, that is a complete lie that is meant to increase corn production worldwide, but hey, why not add another log to the fire to the deception of the feel good of ethanol.    

Wow, those F1 guys are really on the bleeding edge… of marketing it seems.  Because ethanol has no feedstock source that is sustainable in any meaningful quantity.  It is also well proven that 1 bbl of ethanol costs 1.5 bbls of crude oil to produce. 

If you want to dig into it, I’d suggest reading data and studies before Greta Thunberg got the money pockets of the world to have an 11-year-old set worldwide energy policy.  Sorry Greta, you are a great actor, but your understanding of the reality of energy and its sources is that of an, at the time, 11-year-old.  Anyway, this is a good place to start your deep dive into the reality of Corn Ethanol.  https://www.agriculture.com/crops/renewable-energy/ethanol/Ethanol-expansion-tied-directly-to-oil-corn-prices_192-ar1365 

Corn is the most produced crop on the planet earth, so from a volumetric point of view, it’s the only option.  Maybe F1 can say they are using sustainable feedstocks, because maybe they use ten thousand gallons of ethanol in an entire season, which I seriously doubt, but maybe they can say that they have a ten thousand gallon source of 100% sustainable fuel for F1, but just like everything else in the biofuels, scaling feedstock is the fundamental issue. 

I’ll say a couple more things about the magic of Ethanol.  I was hot and heavy in biofuels when Ethanol finally won their victory to be included in the American national gasoline fuel cut.  I was more interested in the diesel side so I watched from the sidelines.  Do not hear much about Bio or Renewable diesel these days, why?  Because there isn’t any feedstock source that can replace the  approximately 65 billion gallons of diesel consumed in the United States on an annual basis.  If we take all the soy bean oil, its only 4 billion gallons and people like to eat I’ve heard.  It’s a laughable situation when you really understand it.  How did ethanol finally achieve that victory? 

Pretty simple when you get down to the fundamentals.  California found MTBE in their water tables.  MTBE is what was used to increase octane in gasoline and was a by-product of crude oil production and it’s an additive.  Remember additive, it will become important later. 

MTBE was immediately demonized by CEPA (California Environmental Protection Agency) without any health and human effects studies.  I mean, the USDA allows for a certain level of maggots in most food stuffs, so are we sure that MTBE is killing us all?  Like Devon on the SNL Californian’s, ethanol lobbyist begged the question, MTBE, what are you doing here?  https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxAqZ7RlU4MiQQAywrtNv3Rvut9n8omFdh

One dark night in California in 2002 without any public debate or health and human effects studies, the policy geniuses of California, who have created the largest homeless population since the great depression, outlawed MTBE and paved the way for Corn Ethanol to be the new additive that increased Octane in unleaded gasoline.  You have to admit, that in the realm of unintended consequences, California is a national thought leader. 

The reason that additive part is interesting is because additives do not go in the pipeline.  So if you are getting E10 (which everyone is getting now in the USA) or E85 at a gas station, that mix was made in the fuel tanker truck that brought it to the gas station.  That ethanol is stored in a probably 10k bbl tank at the fuel rack and guess how it gets there?  If you are lucky, by diesel train, but most likely, by diesel truck with a small component of it being by diesel train.  Oh and btw it was farmed with diesel tractors and diesel equipment that shipped it to the national average 61% hydrocarbon fired electricity capacity to cook the corn into ethanol than then used diesel trucks to take it to a train depot or a fuel rack depending on what is available.  If I had to guess, I’d bet that 85% of the ethanol in the USA is being 100% trucked to fuel racks nationwide.  If that is a picture of sustainable looks like, I think somebody is stretching the truth a bit. 

The very next weekend, I was in Houston Texas at the Wings Over Houston Airshow featuring the US Navy Blue Angels.  It was tragic to hear about the Wings over Dallas Airshow accident on Nov 12^th, 2022.  More brave souls doing their part to keep the history and memory of WWII alive and well within the United States and world.  The industrial capacity of America saved the world from fascism and totalitarian self-proclaimed emperors in WWII.  Not to mention the pride that most Americans should have in our overwhelming military technology and force throughout the world, that fundamentally provides for the saying, let freedom ring and is our fundamental national debt collateral. 

Both of my uncle’s served in WWII.  One of my uncles was a Naval Academy graduate, class of 1945, the only time in the history of the Naval Academy that a class was pushed through in 3 years.  They needed officers for the war effort.  He served for 15 years in the Navy stationed mostly out of Pearl Harbor and went on to be the head of safety for Boeing/NASA after the Apollo 1 burned up on the pad killing “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee.

My other uncle served under Patton and was in the Battle of the Bulge.  One of the most devastating battles of the invasion of Europe by allied forces.  He never spoke of it. That uncle lived to the ripe old age of 98 and was honored by President Trump for his service to America before he passed. 

He also had a dubious career with Boeing and was the project manager for the Lunar Rover, that car that they drove around the moon.  You could say he was the original EV Gansta.  He actually got to talk to the Astronauts on the moon to help them solve a problem with it during the mission.  He cried when he told that story.  After his wife and his children, that was one of the most meaningful moments of his life.  

Both of my uncles were big contributors to Apollo and Space Shuttle days of NASA.  I’m SUPER PROUD to be able to say that.  Anything that dishonors their sacrifice gets me fired up.  F1 discontinuing military flyovers for some impotent and false green narrative and virtue signaling initiative does just that, it dishonors our military and our vets and shows how out of touch the leadership of F1, like the rest of the free world, is around bringing real solutions to the table for a carbon neutral future. 

At COTA, 440,000 souls came to the show.  Everyone got there via a car or a bus.  Maybe 1-3% of those cars were EVs.  DHL is responsible for all F1 shipping worldwide.  Every major and minor vendor at the event, got their wears there through the amazing power of hydrocarbons.  Here are some suggestions for F1 that would be MUCH more meaningful to do something right now to keep the green dream alive. 

Preferential EV and Hybrid Access for Ride Share

If you took the ride share option to get to COTA, you drove to Del Valley High School and took a diesel school bus to the track, where you had to then walk about 1.5 miles to get to the entrance of the track.  IMHO, NEVER and I mean NEVER take ride share to COTA for any reason, unless you’re looking for a 10 mile hike.  How about, if you have an EV ride share vehicle, you can come to the front door and drop off your patrons in Lot A, B or D?  I can see keeping egress the same for the time being, but drop off, it could work.  All buses should be Natural Gas that bring fans to the show.  

Preferential Parking for EV and Hybrid Vehicles

If you have an EV or Hybrid vehicle you get preferential parking purchasing access.  You must specify your EV or Hybrid vehicle at the time of purchase and you are charged if the car is not EV or Hybrid when you arrive.  Maybe more difficult to enforce, but manageable.

FREE parking for EV Motorcycles and Bicycles 

Yet again and very powerful way to increase the market of EV cycles and give people some preferential treatment for participating.  At COTA you could easily earmark part of Lot T, C or F for free EV cycle parking.  The space would be utilized 100% and with no CO2 except for the electricity generation used to charge the batteries and create the machine. 

DHL and Vendors to utilize Natural Gas Trucks in all Shipping WORLD WIDE

I do not know how much diesel fuel is used in the thousands of trucks that are utilized in the transportation of F1, but I’m sure its significant.  I could see how its in the millions of gallons range with all the trucking and jet fuel.  Natural Gas trucks work today with LNG and CNG.  Heck, if you even had to have a convoy of Natural Gas fueling trucks ride along to be refueling stations for all that trucking, F1 would save millions of pounds of CO2 into the air for their shipping, probably after the CO2 fans create to get to the race, is their #1 source of CO2.  If F1 wants to be a leader in expanding a market, this would be a home run. 

We all know that (Environmental, Sustainability and Governance) ESG is the new fashionable business index by which to say, we are green, we do not discriminate and we make sure that minorities and women get their fair share.  Disrespecting the woman and men of the worlds Militaries who provide the free world is not the way to get there https://www.libertymedia.com/tracking-stocks/formula-one-group  You are not fooling anyone who understands the feedstock supply chain for ethanol.  Its not sustainable and the sooner Private Equity stops lying about it, the better of the world will be. 

I give Liberty Media an F, for fail, when it comes to ESG on the environmental and sustainable indexes.  I cannot speak to the Governance aspect for equality across race and gender because I do not know, but if the offensive and impotent stand they have made for sustainability through the magical marketing of corn ethanol and disrespecting the free worlds militaries is any indication, stands to reason its also low on the totem pole. 

This article might get me banned from all F1 races ever, but they are still televised and I’m confident that if the leadership of Liberty Media group is as dumb as the green policy of F1, they will not be at the helm of F1 for very long.  It is a bigger movement than those who currently have the reigns. 

Sorry Liberty Mutual, but people who understand more than how to drink F1 green cool aid realize what a sham and a shame your green sustainable story is.  But hey, your just another group of rich people thinking you run the world and what the peasants do not know, won’t hurt them.  If you want to hire me to help F1 figure out something meaningful to do on being green and sustainable, I’d be happy to help.  Please, steal my ideas from this article.  Love to see it! 

But please… STOP disrespecting the world’s military by putting a “we are green” sticker on banning military flyovers.  You aren’t fooling anyone.  F1 Fans love the machine.  Military air power are the greatest machines ever built.  The men and women of the world’s militaries make our world a better place, celebrate them!  Bring back Military Flyovers for the 2023 season along with a big apology to the men and woman of our military whos service goes beyond the green initiative.