The FIA used the URBANFILTER drainage system at a Formula 1 race for the first time at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. The concept is backed by the Audi Environmental Foundation and scientists at the Technical University of Berlin. It is not a new model, but it is a first for top-level motorsport in the same season Audi is running a factory F1 team.
The target is particles that most road users never see: tire wear, brake dust, microplastics, and other debris that collect on asphalt and wash into drains. The filter is meant to catch as much of that load as possible before rain or wind moves it into the water cycle.
A street drain, not a body panel
URBANFILTER is a modular system fitted into street and track drainage channels. Development has been underway since September 2020, with filtration specialist GKD and rainwater firm ARIS as partners. Audi says the concept has already been tested in the lab and in the field — Berlin, Copenhagen, an ADAC wet-handling track, and a winding public road. At Zandvoort, recent testing recorded a retention rate of up to 99 percent, depending on rainfall intensity and particle characteristics.
The FIA’s install at the Dutch Grand Prix is the first use under Grand Prix conditions. Two circuit-specific prototypes were placed in Zandvoort’s drainage network around the pit lane and Turn 1 (Tarzanbocht), covering about 3,300 square meters of catchment so runoff can be intercepted and the captured particles analyzed.
How this sits next to Audi’s F1 program
The Audi Environmental Foundation is a nonprofit subsidiary of AUDI AG, founded in 2009. Sven Veit, its managing director, said the FIA’s involvement gives the research both a global stage and an extreme test environment.
Audi’s factory Formula 1 team is in its first season. Entry into the series required synthetic or biomass-derived fuels and a high share of electrical energy. Audi’s power-unit site in Neuburg also holds the FIA’s three-star environmental certification, on top of ISO 14001 and ISO 50001.
This is a research trial, not a sales pitch. The useful result will be whether the filters hold up under race-weekend flow and particle load — data the FIA, TU Berlin, and the foundation will now have from a full Grand Prix weekend.
Source: Audi, “Innovation against microplastics: URBANFILTER at the Formula 1 race in Zandvoort”.