The MASAI arrive to paint the asphalt green

maasai tribe has a proverb that shows great respect for its environment and for the planet: “The land we live on is not inherited from our parents, but borrowed from our children”. Fernando Moreno and Mª Carmen Rubio, directors of the Construction Engineering Laboratory of the University of Granada, devised the MASAI (acronym for Sustainable, Automated and Intelligent Asphalt Materials) which, under the same premise of respect for the planet, work with sustainable materials creating a asphalt that they call ‘green’. Through recycled materials such as tires that are discarded from cars after use, they are able to make asphalt much more durablewith more grip than the traditional ones and, above all, much more sustainable. Highway pavements, airports, urban pavements, circuits… Variety of projects to leave a stamp of commitment to the world. An idea that is in line with those that have motivated the union of Banco Santander, Ferrari and F1unbreakable alliance for the sustainable future of the competition.

AS has contacted Fernando Moreno to know in depth the work behind it. The professor explains that after more than a decade of intense effort applying the most advanced knowledge in materials science, the MASAI differ from those commonly used in this type of infrastructure in two fundamental aspects. The first of them is that are materials designed under the most demanding sustainability standards, being supported by the basic pillars of the circular economy and industrial symbiosis (guaranteeing the self-consumption of the waste generated, the reuse of waste from other nearby activities and the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions). The second differentiating aspect is that MASAI can incorporate technological components (such as sensors, fiber optics, radio frequency or electromagnetic wave collectors, etc.) that allow them to receive/send information in real time to the user or the road administrator, or have automation to optimize road safety. We are talking about pavements that can help guide and position the autonomous vehicle, charge the electric vehicle, remove snow or ice from the road by inducing heat, measure the speed and load of the traffic that circulates on them, or monitor the structural health of the road to optimize maintenance tasks.

Today, the MASAI are beginning to be used regularly by many companies and administrations in Spain and some abroad. Nevertheless, the cradle of its application is Andalusiawhere for more than 6 years they have been used to repair some of its most important roads.

The main characteristic of the MASAI is that they are high-performance materials and, therefore, they would not only contribute to improving the sustainability of Grand Prix, but also to improve track characteristics such as grip or regularity. Asphalt is one of the 3 fundamental elements, along with the driver and the caron which every Formula 1 race depends. For this reason, in the same way that asphalt that does not work can ruin a race (as happened in the Istanbul Grand Prix 2020), materials that improve the grip of the tires or make a telemetry of the stresses transmitted by the single-seaters at the different points of the circuit, could contribute to seeing faster races, under greater safety and more sustainable conditions. “The MASAI would make Formula 1 more sustainable“, in the words of Fernando Moreno. The professor assures that asphalts with greater grip could be designed with them through the use of recycled materials from the circuit itself, waste from industries associated with the Grand Prix or polymer waste like the graining produced on the tires during the race. “I think that on the asphalt of the circuits there is a wide range of improvement. If we look at the appearance of a Formula 1 car from the 70s and a current one, we find big differences. However, if we look at the asphalt of a Formula 1 circuit 1 from the 70s and a current one… we could say that it is almost the same”, asserts Moreno. Finally, the application of MASAI in Formula 1 would also have an impact at a social level, since it would help raise awareness among citizens that sustainability is not incompatible with high performance and high quality materials.

“Of course”agrees Moreno. Formula 1 has been focused on this goal for years and the show is still there. However, its strategy is mainly focused on single-seaters (use of sustainable fuels, implementation of hybrid engines with electric batteries, lighter materials so that the cars consume less, etc.) or the logistics surrounding the celebration of the great prizes (promote the use of public transport to access the circuits, that the service vehicles to be used are fully electric, the use of renewable energies for the consumption of the facilities, the use of water dispensers to avoid the use of bottles plastic, etc.). And, according to the professor, a high-performance asphalt (with a greater surface regularity, a better state of conservation or adherence based on micro-roughness) means that the same driver, with the same way of driving, in the same layout and with the same car, generate fewer emissions and consume less fuel than on other types of asphalt with worse conditions.

F1 has always been an ideal setting for innovation and the development of automovile industry, from aerodynamics to brake design. For this reason, working in close collaboration hand in hand with fomowner of the F1and Ferrari, Santander has the opportunity to continue contributing to the fight against climate change, promoting change towards a sustainable model and accompanying the competition in its ambition to reduce CO2 emissions. And it is that the more we can accelerate innovation to find new technologies that contribute to decarbonizing people’s day-to-day lives, the goal of zero emissions will be reached first. And the work they are doing in the University of Granada inspired by the Masai tribe could contribute to this.

^{*This content sponsored by SANTANDER has been prepared by Diario AS.}