Do I need permission from motorsports organisations to write a research paper about motor racing?
You only need permission to talk about something if you use information you have gotten from someone for which they own the intellectual property (copyright). I specifically say &quot;talk&quot; because writing a research paper is, in some sense, still speech.
In other words, if all you have used in your paper is publicly available information, then you don't need written approval. If you have used a computational geometry in your work that you have obtained from someone else who has intellectual property ownership over it, then you do need approval.