Future fuel

New fuel trial at Hockenheim this weekend that promises big CO2 results.

At this weekend’s DTM final, the Audi RS 5 DTM race taxis will be using innovative fuel that improves the CO2 balance by 30 percent.

4 October, 2019


It’s great that motorsport is once again playing a pioneering role

The 2019 DTM result in all three categories – driver, teams and manufacturers’ – has already been decided in Audi Sport’s favour, but this weekend’s final round still represents a significant meeting for a number of reasons.

The 2019 season saw the dawn of a new era for the leading European touring car category, with the introduction of highly efficient turbo engines. As a result, not only have fans been thrilled by the blinding speed of the new cars, but the DTM has achieved a significant CO2 reduction in the process.

At the DTM finale at Hockenheim, Audi, together with series promoter ITR and its technology partner Aral, will make the next major move, for the first time running both of its Audi RS 5 DTM race taxis on an innovative fuel that improves the CO2 balance by 30 percent. 

“Audi has set itself the ambitious goal of successively achieving a reduction of about 30 percent of vehicle-specific CO2 emissions by 2025,” says Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Motorsport. 

“Obviously, electric mobility plays a major role in this context. However, we still have a large fleet of passenger cars using classic internal combustion engines in existence worldwide that will be with us for many more years. By using low carbon fuels, a really noticeable CO2 reduction could be achieved for these cars without having to make technical changes. It’s great that motorsport is once again playing a pioneering role. We are excited about the idea of reducing CO2 emissions through the use of waste.” 

Ulrich Baretzky – Head of Engine Development at Audi Motorsport.
Two-time Formula One World Champion – Emerson Fittipaldi.

The more climate friendly high performance fuel developed by Aral, has a composition of 50 percent being made up of high-quality renewable components derived from waste materials. Yet this fuel  still meets the quality standards of the ‘Aral Ultimate 102’  fuel that has been used in the DTM since 2005.

“We did not have to make any modifications to the DTM engine and have not had the slightest problem on the test bench so far,” says Ulrich Baretzky. “Consequently, we are proving that low carbon fuels are also suitable for racing engines.” 

Audi has also been researching alternative fuels for road car production for several years, with the company  working independently on projects for the production of e-gas, e-diesel and e-gasoline. 

For the pilot test at Hockenheim, one of the two Audi RS 5 DTM race taxis will be provided with a conspicuous special livery featuring logos from Aral and the inscription: “THE NEXT STEP.” There will also be something special about the chauffeur, who is two-time Formula One World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi. The Brazilian is the grandfather of Pietro Fittipaldi, who celebrated his DTM debut with Audi’s customer team WRT this year. The second Audi RS 5 DTM race taxi will be driven by Le Mans winner and World Endurance Champion Benoît Tréluyer. 

The more climate friendly high performance fuel is made up of 50 percent renewable components derived from waste materials