28 May 2026 11:30 (UTC)
"It is all the more important that we work hard to reduce our overall impact on the planet and the pressures on global resources"
McLaren Racing today publishes its 2025 Sustainability Report, highlighting the team's application of motorsport know how and innovation to help accelerate solutions in the sustainability space and reduce its overall impact on the planet; from launching a semi-autonomous system to supercharge coral reef restoration, to doubling down on the quest to build a Circular F1 Car.
The launch of OSCAR (Operational System for Coral Assembly and Restoration) - a semi-autonomous coral-seeding machine, created in collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to supercharge coral restoration and take the number of corals planted on the reef annually from 100,000 to 1 million per year
Development of a first-of-its-kind ‘Circular Car Roadmap’ with partner Deloitte and tracking its circularity metric with support from Google's data capabilities, to edge closer to its moonshot goal of building a Circular F1 Car
Working in partnership with Ecolab, to cover 100% of business travel as well as Formula 1 charter logistics through the team’s substantial investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) certificates - equivalent to 1.1 million US gallons of fuel
A 39% reduction in operational emissions vs its baseline, driven by use of biofuel across the operated fleet, SAFc for business and logistics travel, race calendar efficiencies, and lightweighting and freight optimisation
Total waste was reduced by 14%, and hazardous waste disposal in composites manufacturing reduced by 40% vs 2024
44.8% of new starters in 2025 were from underrepresented groups (which includes women, people from ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, people with neurodivergence or a disability and military veterans in the US) bringing the total number of employees from underrepresented backgrounds to 36% and on track for the team’s target of 40% by 2030
The Driver Development Programme was expanded with the signing of three female drivers – Ella Lloyd, Ella Stevens and Ella Häkkinen - and McLaren Racing is the only team to have entered a second car into the all-female F1 Academy series for 2026, with driver Ella Lloyd named 2025 F1 Academy Rookie of the Year
McLaren Racing ranked in Sustainability Magazine’s top 75 most sustainable companies globally (at no. 73); the only racing team to appear within the top 200[1]
Showing the true power of partnership, McLaren’s Racing’s Accelerator programme applies F1 know-how and a race performance mindset to challenges off-track. In this case, accelerating climate solutions through ground-breaking innovation and technology. Building on its work with Great Barrier Reef Foundation, which started in 2023, McLaren Racing developed OSCAR (Operational System for Coral Assembly and Restoration) – a semi-autonomous machine, designed to improve efficiency, increase scale, and reduce costs of coral restoration.
Over just a few nights once a year, a natural reproductive event happens on the Reef called ‘coral spawning.’ Scientists collect and grow hundreds of thousands of these tiny reproductive bundles in controlled conditions – likened to Coral IVF. The more climate resistant baby corals are then placed onto ‘cradles’ and returned to damaged parts of the reef to accelerate recovery.[2]
A highly manual and labour-intensive process, assembling each cradle by hand previously took up to 90 seconds. Built for speed, OSCAR uses robotics to reduce this process to just 10 seconds per device, taking production from 100,000 to over one million cradles per year. The set up is currently being tested in Australia, with a view to rolling out the technology to other reefs worldwide.
Following its development of the first-ever F1 Constructors’ Circularity Handbook in 2024, McLaren Racing has continued to drive sustainable innovations in motorsport forward; calculating its circularity metric for the second consecutive year, using Google's suite of advanced data tools, and through the development of a ‘roadmap’ to delivering a Circular F1 Car. Designed in collaboration with Deloitte, the roadmap sets out a pathway to rethink how race cars are designed, manufactured, and reused, with the ambition of reducing environmental impact and waste at every stage. The roadmap will be a ‘viable, targeted, and data-driven plan that balances the adoption of existing technologies with a forward-looking perspective on regulatory shifts’ empowering the team to take another step forward in making their vision a reality. Across its operations, McLaren Racing also continued to strengthen efforts to boost circularity in 2025. The team reports total waste down 14%, alongside a 40% reduction in hazardous waste disposal in composites manufacturing vs 2024, supported by improved waste segregation, better material-flow visibility, and targeted manufacturing interventions. The 2025 report also records a 39% reduction in operational emissions vs baseline, across business travel (-62%), logistics (-47%) and fuel and facilities (-30%) as well as maintaining 22% circularity across production of its F1 car chassis. The current score of 22% comprises the use of recycled metals, bio-derived materials, general waste recycling, and hazardous liquid recycling. The team has already started to address the volume and type of materials traditionally used in F1 car design and production, to make progress on this in 2026.
McLaren Racing further expanded its investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAFc) certificates to cover 100% of Formula 1 charter logistics, and working with partner Ecolab to cover 100% business travel emissions, equivalent to 1.1 million US gallons of fuel in total.
In 2025, the team made great strides to further boost the diversity of the team across all areas of the business, attract people from underrepresented backgrounds to the sport, and doubled down on its mission to open up pathways for women into STEM careers.
In the report, 36% of employees identify with one or more underrepresented characteristics; supported by significantly stronger people-data visibility, thanks to extensive analysis with partner Workday. 44.8% of new starters in 2025 were from underrepresented groups. A commitment to improving diversity in motorsports is also highlighted in McLaren Racing’s expanded Driver Development Programme. In 2025, the team signed three female drivers to the DDP - Ella Lloyd, Ella Stevens, and Ella Häkkinen - and announced a second car entry into the all-female F1 Academy series for 2026, becoming the only Formula 1 team supporting two drivers on the grid. Ella Lloyd was named 2025 F1 Academy Rookie of the Year, securing five podium finishes including a win, and finishing fourth overall in the championship. She’s not the only woman to represent McLaren Racing on the podium this year though, with Chief Marketing Officer, Louise McEwen and Chief Financial Officer, Laura Bowden becoming the 11th and 12th women in history to stand on an F1 podium to represent the team.
“As our sport continues to see incredible growth around the world, it is all the more important that we work hard to reduce our overall impact on the planet and the pressures on global resources – and collaboration and great partnerships are essential to us achieving that. It’s fantastic to see our McLaren Accelerator team apply motorsport know-how to other industries to help supercharge processes and drive efficiencies, with our engineers working alongside marine biologists to find solutions in coral restoration. Equally, I’m excited by the work we’re doing with Deloitte and Google to continue our mission to build a fully circular F1 car. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made to date, and I’m excited about what’s next.”
“What I’m most proud of in 2025 is seeing the way McLaren Racing’s performance mindset has translated into real sustainability progress. Over the last year, we covered 100% of aviation emissions from business travel and F1 charter logistics with SAFc, maintained 22% circularity in F1 car production, and I saw first-hand the impact of Accelerator’s work with Great Barrier Reef Foundation, in helping to increase the speed of coral reef restoration tenfold through OSCAR.”
“For me, it’s not just about the results; it’s about what they show is possible when data, collaboration and marginal gains come together to drive faster progress on the challenges that matter most. Real progress doesn’t happen all at once - it comes from people working together, staying focused and continuing to find ways to do things better.”
[1] Automotive brands Mercedes-Benz appeared in Top 75 and Ferrari appeared in Top 250
[2] For more information on coral spawning, please see a short video from Great Barrier Reef Foundation here: Reef Snapshot: Breakthrough innovations for coral reefs
