Vettel on Formula 1: “My job is not good for the world”
Critics say: It races through the world and tells us about sustainability. Can you understand that?
Vettel: Basically, people are right in the first place, that’s true. My job is not sustainable. My job is not good for the world. And people like me, who can perhaps make many things possible for themselves, but who can also reach a great many people, bear a special responsibility that we have to do something. Sometimes you despair a bit because you ask yourself: is that enough?
The challenge is to say what the possibilities are to do this differently so that it doesn’t do any harm. Ideally, it should be neutral or even bring something good with it.
Despite all the discussions, Formula 1 is experiencing a boom: more races, new routes, new regulations. How do you feel about that?
Vettel: If the goal is to make money, then Formula One gets it right. But in my opinion, the future viability is then called into question. The sport itself is still the same. Of course, the cars look a bit different now and you’re trying to make the sporty a bit better and develop it further.
I believe that the responsibility, especially at this time, is greater than ever. At some point the point will come when the pressure from outside will be so great that you ask yourself: What sense does that make? Precisely because we actively burn petrol and oil to practice our sport.
Vettel on sustainability: “Investors want more”
approaches are there. But in order to really get something moving, you have to say okay, the course we are sticking to is wrong or doesn’t lead to anything, so a change is needed. In the way Formula 1 is financed, what happens with the money. At the end of the day, they are big investors.
And the investors behind it want more. With all these issues, in order to be sustainable, we or everyone involved must ask themselves: Is there enough? And agree on this enough and not on more and more. Maybe throw some things overboard. Above all, this greed and this striving for more and more.