Why motorsport is leading the way on sustainability and data, according to Karun Chandhok
Karun Chandhok is one of only two Indian drivers ever to compete in Formula 1, a milestone that underscores both his skill and his influence in global motorsport.
His racing career spans junior formulas, GP2 victories, a stint in the FIA Formula One World Championship and participation in endurance and electric racing categories, giving him a uniquely broad perspective on the evolution of competitive propulsion technologies and performance analysis.
Following his time behind the wheel, Chandhok has become a respected sports presenter, working with major international broadcasters, including Sky Sports F1, BBC Radio 5 Live and Channel 4, where his insights reach millions of viewers and listeners around the world.
In addition to his media work, he contributes to motorsport governance and development through roles with Motorsport UK and the FIA Drivers’ Commission, where he engages on safety, diversity and the future of racing.
In this exclusive interview with the London Keynote Speakers Agency, Chandhok shares his views on how electric vehicles and hybrid technologies are reshaping motorsport, the sustainability lessons offered by Formula E, and how data and artificial intelligence are driving competitive advantage at the highest levels of racing.
Question 1: How will electric vehicles transform the motorsports industry in the years to come?
Karun Chandhok: “There’s a lot of noise out in the world, in terms of both the automotive road car world, or the mobility world I should say, and the motorsport world, on what is the future of propulsion that we’re all going to have.
“Is it synthetic fuels? Is it electric? Is it hydrogen? Is it going to be hybrid? And a combination of all these things.
“And I’m not convinced that there’s any single person on the planet who can truly say that they know what the future is. I think it is a tricky time for the entire industry to work out.
“But I think where motorsport comes into play is we can help to accelerate some of the answers for the outside world. So, for example, if you look at the hybrid engines that have been running in Formula 1 since way back in 2014, so a decade ago, they had the ability to use 50 percent of any of the fuel that was burned to produce energy.
“Now, if you look at the combustion ratio of most petrol cars, they’re in the low 30 percent. So already, actually, the Formula 1 engines are the most energy-efficient engines on the planet and have been for the last decade.
“Then you investigate things like the hybrid systems. The actual batteries for 2026 F1 cars are going to be 50/50 in terms of battery electric power and internal combustion engine.
“If you look at the way we’re innovative with synthetic fuels and with sustainable fuels, for example, in the World Rally Championship and the British Touring Car Championship, really across the board, not just at Formula 1.
“Again, it’s low volumes. It’s therefore not as price-sensitive. You’re able to sell the fuels at a higher price than you would to job blobs on the street, and therefore, they can be a test bed. And the more we test it and the better we can develop it; it’ll bring the price down to potentially the consumers on the planet.”
Question 2: What can Formula E teach us about sustainability?
Karun Chandhok: “I was one of the first drivers in Formula E. I took part in the first championship back in 2014, and I’ve been involved in the championship on and off ever since. And it’s been fascinating to see just the rate of development of the cars.
“Now, the batteries themselves are supplied by a single supplier, and the chassis and the basic car design is again supplied by a single supplier. But I think what Formula E teaches the companies involved in the sport, the manufacturers like Jaguar and Porsche and all these people, Stellantis Group, of course, is how to optimise it.
“Really, how do you absolutely eke out every little bit of energy out of that battery? How do you get the software to produce the energy in a way that’s used on the road in the most efficient way?
“And really, that trickle-down know-how will come into the road car industry. In Formula E, you’ve got 11, well, now 12 actually, very, very competitive teams, and they’re fighting for mere tenths.
“If they’re able, just through the software, to find a better way to find a bit more performance, then they emerge as winners. And so, I think it’s all about chasing that optimisation and looking for the last fraction of energy.”
Question 3: How has artificial intelligence transformed the motorsports industry?
Karun Chandhok: “Artificial intelligence is obviously a very broadly used term across all industries today. I think in the motorsport sense, the biggest benefits have come from cost efficiency.
“When you think about going back into the late 1990s or the early 2000s, the teams didn’t have the simulation tools. They didn’t have the driver-in-the-loop simulators that they have today.
“So, they were reliant on going out onto the track and spending millions for the cars to be pounding round and round and round for the drivers to be collecting data and information for them to understand how to improve.
“Today, a race team is able to run eight billion different scenarios ahead of a Grand Prix weekend on what the potential combinations can be, in terms of car setup, in terms of strategy, in terms of what tyres to use, and all these little options.
“And then as the weekend unfolds, they can narrow it down through all the tools that they’ve developed.
“In terms of the simulators, for example, the drivers are able to spend several hours driving the cars in a virtual world, using the predictive tools to try and understand what’s the best setup, what’s the best way for them to approach a corner, how exactly to turn the wheel, what part of the track to be on.
“So, there’s a whole range of methods in which they can learn in advance before they go to circuit and waste a lot of time and money, and frankly, energy and fuel.
“So, I think that there’s two benefits. One is primarily cost efficiency, but you have to say from a sustainability standpoint as well, there’s a huge saving on that side.”
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Question 4: Data plays a key role in Formula 1. How can businesses use analytics for a competitive advantage?
Karun Chandhok: “F1 is such a data-driven sport today. The cars are producing gigabytes worth of information after every Grand Prix, and there are millions of data points across that grid between the 20 cars.
“Now that data needs to be filtered down, and there obviously that’s where the human element comes in. It’s about prioritisation. It’s about understanding which bit of data is important and is going to really make the biggest difference to performance, or to reliability, or to make it more user-friendly for the driver.
“So, I think data is absolutely important. If you were in a financial institution, for example, the more data you can gather in terms of what the markets are going to do, what the consumer behaviour is going to do, the risk profiles for your customers if you’re in investments, that helps you paint the picture of what to do with the money.
“But ultimately, the human element of how to interpret that data is still critically important. To me, absolutely, the engineers are heavily reliant on data, but there is still a great deal of emphasis on experience and human instinct to make sure that they use the data in the right way.
“Because you can get lost. There is just so much information in F1. You can get lost in the noise, and that’s where the human element comes in.”
This exclusive interview with Karun Chandhok was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.
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