FIA trials tyre-particle filters at Zandvoort in environmental push

FIA puts prototype filtration system through real-world test

The FIA is using the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort to trial prototype filtration systems designed to capture tyre-wear particles, microplastics and other road pollutants before rainwater can carry them into the surrounding environment.

A 2024 OECD report estimated that 2.7 million tonnes of microplastics entered the environment in 2020. That figure is expected to double by 2040. A University of Portsmouth-led study identified tyre particles as accounting for around 28 per cent of all microplastics entering the global environment.

Two units installed around the circuit

Nicolas Aubourg, the FIA’s Head of R&D, said laboratory testing had produced encouraging results, but stressed that the Dutch Grand Prix would provide a more important assessment: whether the system can deliver under genuine circuit conditions.

“It’s a pretty smart system,” Aubourg said. “In laboratory testing, the system captured up to 99% of the particles in the water passing through it, with a maintenance interval of around a year. What we now need to establish is how a prototype performs in real conditions at a circuit.”

Motorsport as a controlled test environment

The FIA said motorsport’s own contribution to global microplastic pollution is minimal, with only 22 cars racing on a closed circuit over a grand prix weekend. The broader objective is to use that controlled environment to validate technology that could later be scaled for public roads.

“If we do convince the promoters of other street circuits that we could install these filters, we can race with fewer particles leaving the site and leave the filters behind afterwards for everyday road traffic,” Aubourg said. “That would represent a significant quantity of particles that do not go into the environment.”

Zandvoort’s coastal location made it a fitting venue for the first real-world deployment. The process, from collecting samples at the circuit to manufacturing the prototypes, took just over a year.

“If we show that it’s working,” Aubourg added, “then next year, with their help and with all the tests we have done, we will hopefully begin discussing the concept with other circuits. They are already interested.”