He’s already bought a farm, established a brewery and taken over a pub. Now Jeremy Clarkson is looking to get into business with Formula 1 teams..
The former Top Gear presenter has begun growing flax, which is already used in some F1 cars as a cheaper, greener alternative to carbon fibre.
Clarkson said that he discussed using the material to create car parts with a member of the Alpine Formula 1 team, based six miles away from his Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton.
Writing in The Sunday Times, he described how he initially decided to grow flax for its traditional purpose of making linen.
In a scenario familiar to viewers of his Clarkson’s Farm Amazon Prime series, he went on to detail a series of disasters and unforeseen issues that threatened to turn the project into a debacle.
Clarkson was a guest of Alpine at Silverstone after supplying food for the team
Sam Bagnall/Sutton Images
Then, this summer at Silverstone, where his farm was supplying food for Alpine’s hospitality unit, the team was unexpectedly interested in his new crop, Clarkson wrote.
“I was at the British Grand Prix chatting to the marketing guy … and he said, out of nowhere, ‘Do you know anything about flax?’ It turns out that they’re toying with the idea of using it alongside carbon fibre to make panels for their race car.
“Imagine if we have enough to make an F1 car. How cool would that be? To watch it thundering round the track thinking, I grew that.”
Formula 1 teams have been investigating the use of flax for more than five years, after realising that a material humans first spun more than 30,000 years ago offers a cheaper, less energy-intensive alternative to carbon fibre.
The stalks can be woven and layered in a similar way to carbon fibre, providing a lightweight and strong material that’s highly resistant to bending.
Norris’s 2021 race seat with light brown sections of flax
McLaren
In 2021 McLaren announced that Lando Norris was racing with a seat made of flax, bringing benefits beyond simple cost savings.
It was more comfortable because it absorbed a greater amount of vibration than the carbon fibre seat, and was made with 85% fewer CO2 emissions. McLaren, like all teams, has signed up to F1’s net zero goal.
