Formula 1 teams have been urged to improve ‘governance and transparency’ to help make the future of the sport more sustainable. Only three out of the 10 teams published a code of ethics in 2022, with new research concluding the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull have been caught lacking in some aspects of their performance away from the track.
A newly-published report from the Standard Ethics group has analyzed current operations in the F1 paddock, focusing on team governance and environmental and social strategies.
Researchers looked into whether each team has a publicly available code of ethics, while there was also an emphasis placed on the coverage of human rights issues.
But while eight teams were praised for their human rights effort, only Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren were singled out for creating an important code of ethics document that highlights issues surrounding sustainability in the sport.
“There were three teams with a code of ethics – McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari. They were talking about all major sustainability issues but I would like to see more from the other teams,” Standard Ethics director of research Jacopo Schettini told the Guardian.
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He continued: “Sustainability is not just environmental topics, but also gender inequality or risk management, or health and safety. It’s a lot of issues. Having an ESG reporting system we can see what they are doing, they have to improve governance and reporting.”
Schnetti was quick to note that other teams on the grid may have their own internal code of ethics, but insisted that a lack of transparency in making them public is part of a fundamental problem in F1.
“Sustainability needs transparency,” he asserted. “Transparency and a long-term vision, give us a long-term vision. What you are thinking about sustainability and keep us updated on your goals. If you fail to meet a target we understand, you can postpone a target but it’s very important that you have a target and a roadmap.”
