2025 British Grand Prix — Silverstone
0
tonnes CO₂e from fan travel alone
confidence range: 29,000 – 54,000 tCO₂e

One race weekend. 24% of F1's entire annual reported footprint.

Scale

How big is this number?

F1 reports its total annual carbon footprint as 168,720 tCO₂e. The fan travel emissions from a single Silverstone weekend represent nearly a quarter of that figure — and F1 doesn't include fan travel in its reporting.

F1 total annual footprint 168,720 tCO₂e
Fan travel — one race 40,259 tCO₂e = 24%
Attendance

500,000 across four days

Silverstone's cumulative attendance reached half a million, with an estimated 280,000 unique attendees. Race Sunday drew the largest single-day crowd.

Thursday
60k
attendees
Friday
130k
attendees
Saturday
142k
attendees
Sunday
168k
attendees
The disparity

12% flew. They produced 87% of emissions.

The overwhelming majority of fans drove to Silverstone. But the small share who flew — mostly international attendees — dominated the carbon footprint.

How fans got there

Drove
78%
Flew
12%
Other
10%

Where the emissions came from

Drove
8%
Flew
87%
Other
5%
55×
The carbon intensity gap
A long-haul international fan produces 1,057 kg CO₂e. A domestic fan driving to Silverstone produces 19.2 kg. That's a 55-fold difference per person.
Per capita

Not all fans are equal

Where you travel from — and how — defines your individual carbon footprint for the weekend.

19.2
kg CO₂e per person
Domestic fan (drove)
vs
1,057
kg CO₂e per person
International fan (flew long-haul)
The gap in reporting

F1 does not report fan travel emissions

Race attendance has grown from 4 million to 6.5 million fans since 2018. Yet fan travel — the single largest source of emissions at any Grand Prix — sits entirely outside F1's reported carbon footprint. This is the blind spot in motorsport sustainability.

Bottom-up estimation using DEFRA 2024 emission factors, ONS travel survey data, and geographic distribution modelling
DEFRA 2024 emission factors Bottom-up estimation ONS travel survey Geographic distribution model Sensitivity analysis Monte Carlo simulation
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