Sebastian Vettel fears for the future of Formula 1. Because of the consequences of climate change, the four-time world champion draws a bleak scenario for the motorsport premier class.
Is Formula 1 threatened by government bans in the future? Sebastian Vettel publicly expressed this mind game and thus sent a clear warning to the racing series.
At the “Goodwood Festival of Speed”, which the 36-year-old attended in Great Britain over the weekend, he spoke to reporters about this danger to Formula 1.
“If you don’t look away completely, you can see that the climate crisis is already having an impact on many people in many places around the world,” explained Vettel and then also led the canceled F1 race in Imola due to flooding in northern Italy as an example and the GP in Miami which was on the brink (also due to flooding/heavy rain) and wildfires in Canada threatening Montreal.
“It’s a real threat,” Vettel said. “You have to acknowledge that the world is changing and affecting us. I don’t think it’s that much of a threat that people might get stuck on the track on a race day like this.”
“I think more of a threat is that at some point governments will look closely at things that they can cut and ban and maybe motorsport is threatened by that.”
Vettel believes in alternatives
For Vettel that would be a stab in the heart of motorsport. “I don’t want that to happen, to make that clear. I think it’s a great sport.”
The former Formula 1 driver does not only see the responsibility of the athletes and athletes. “We alone can’t make a difference. But I think there are alternatives.”
Vettel had increasingly campaigned for climate projects in recent years and put his finger in the wound, for which he had to take a lot of praise, but also criticism. At the 2022 race in Miami, for example, he wore a shirt that drew attention to rising sea levels, in Canada he clearly criticized tar sand mining and in Silverstone he cleared away the garbage in the grandstands.