Yamaha racing with sustainable fuel
Words and images courtesy Yamaha
Yamaha Motor Europe and TotalEnergies will make history this week. The Yamaha R3 bLU cRU SuperFinale will become the first world championship motorcycle event to use 100% sustainable fuel.
Earlier this year, Yamaha Motor Europe announced a partnership with TotalEnergies. This was in a combined effort to further improve both performance and sustainability across Yamaha’s road racing activities.
This collaboration first saw TotalEnergies provide 40% non-fossil (sustainable) fuel to Yamaha Motor Europe’s WorldSBK teams. They also provided this same fuel to the 2024 FIM Yamaha R3 bLU cRU World Cup. Alongside this, engineers from both Yamaha and TotalEnergies have been working behind the scenes. They seek to take the next steps in both performance and sustainability.
The next step in this combined effort towards a more sustainable motorsport is that Yamaha will run TotalEnergies Excellium Racing 100 (ER100) fuel in all motorcycles. This will happen at the R3 bLU cRU SuperFinale event at Estoril.
Excellium Racing 100 is a certified 100% sustainable fuel. It is produced from bioethanol, which itself is produced from wine residues. It has already been used successfully in the automotive racing world, including in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). However, the R3 bLU cRU SuperFinale will become the first world championship motorcycle event to fully adopt the use of this 100% sustainable fuel.
The invitational R3 bLU cRU SuperFinale runs alongside Round 11 of the FIM Superbike World Championship in Estoril. It sees riders aged between 14-18 years old from all over the globe battle it out over two days of racing. The riders chosen to participate in the SuperFinale are those who have impressed the most in the national level R3 Cups and Challenges during the 2024 season. The overall winner, plus another top-performing rider selected by Yamaha Motor Europe, will win a fully supported Yamaha ride in the 2025 FIM Yamaha R3 bLU cRU World Cup.
Andrea Dosoli, Yamaha Motor Europe Motorsport Road Racing and Research & Development Manager, said:
“There is no doubt that motorsport is in a time of change. Technical rules across the board are moving towards making the sport more sustainable. It is also adopting more environmentally friendly practices. We are proud to be among the first moving towards the use of 100% sustainable fuel.
TotalEnergies Excellium Racing 100 will be the official fuel of the R3 bLU cRU European SuperFinale. This makes it the first world championship motorcycle event to do so. Of course, this would not be possible without the collaboration with our partners at TotalEnergies. They share our goals to progress to a more sustainable motorsport, while continuing to improve performance. Importantly, we support the next generation of riders – which is what the R3 bLU cRU SuperFinale is all about.”
Pierre-Gautier Caloni, TotalEnergies Marketing & Service VP Motorsport added:
“By introducing our 100% sustainable fuel into the R3 bLU cRU SuperFinale, we accompany our partner Yamaha in their energy transition. We firmly believe that young generations are the key players in this change. Together with Yamaha, we are proud to contribute to the decarbonisation of the sport.”