The seats are built from Bcomp’s powerRibs™ technology and ampliTex™ woven flax fiber reinforcements. A three-dimensional powerRibs™ grid structure on one side of the seat is used to reinforce the ampliTex™ flax fabric that is bonded to it. When powerRibs™ work together with ampliTex™, Bcomp reports that the result matches the performance of carbon fiber.
The flax fibers are biodegradable and at the end of the seat’s life, it can be recycled or ground into a new base material and reused.
“This seat is the first step in the successful application of natural fiber composites in F1,” McLaren F1 team principal Andreas Seidl said. “By working with Bcomp we can identify other components that we can replace with a sustainable alternative that has equivalent weight and performance. There is no silver bullet in the race to be carbon neutral. Instead, we must continually evaluate every element of our cars and our operations to identify the ways we can improve performance, drive efficiency, and reduce environmental impact.”
