Friday 17th September 2021
Environment, human rights, garbage
It’s good that Vettel continues to pester the F1
By Martin Armbruster
Sebastian Vettel continues his career and will also drive in the Aston Martin in 2022. This is a blessing for the motorsport premier class – because Vettel has long been more than a driver. He is the conscience of Formula 1 – and asks the right and important questions.
It took a long time. So long that some Formula 1 fans began to worry. But now one thing is certain: He will carry on. The fact that Sebastian Vettel will also drive for Aston Martin in Formula 1 in 2022 is good news for German racing fans. Because let’s be honest: A resignation of the four-time world champion would have dealt a hard blow to the F1 in this country – and Mick Schumacher took on the (additional) burden of being the only German to hold up the black, red and gold flag in the premier class.
The 22-year-old will also be happy that the Aston Martin driver will continue to support him as a mentor in his second season. Because if Vettel had broken up, we would almost certainly not have seen him in the Formula 1 circus. The 34-year-old has set too many other priorities in his life. The family with three children, of course, but also the issue of environmental protection and nature conservation now play a central role in Vettel’s life.
And it is precisely in this context that it is of inestimable value for the racing series that the figurehead Vettel stays with it. The Aston Martin driver may no longer be the fastest driver in Formula 1 – he is their conscience instead.
Vettel asks the right questions
Certainly, many will interpret it as hypocrisy that Vettel is committed to the environment and elects the Greens, that he warns of the consequences of climate change while he jets around the world in the F1, blowing gasoline en masse out of his car. It’s a contradiction. But: Vettel doesn’t want to be a moral apostle, a senior teacher, or a people’s educator. In view of the rapid global warming, he only asks the right questions: How does our life (as we know it) stay worth living? What can be done so that we can live out our passions – for some, driving a car – also in the future?
There are questions that rich industrial nations and their leaders have to ask themselves in a large context – and also an entertainment machine like Formula 1. The F1 must be a technology pioneer, demands Vettel. Need to reduce your carbon footprint as soon as possible. Have to put your calendar together in such a way that unnecessary trips are eliminated. Nobody reminds the F1 bosses of their responsibility as emphatically as Vettel. He doesn’t do that via Instagram. He does it right away. This also applies to other topics.
When the officials at the Hungarian GP reprimanded him for kneeling on the grid with a rainbow shirt to remind people of universal human rights (in the case of LGBTQ +), Vettel just shrugged his shoulders. Punish me, I would do it again, said the former series champion bluntly – and reminded the F1-Zampanos of their own, gloriously displayed credo “We Race As One”. Vettel was celebrated on the net for the action.
In general: Vettel and the Internet. The Twitter and Instagram refusers are increasingly the hit on social media on race weekends. Whether he is holding up the rainbow flag in Budapest, collecting rubbish at Silverstone or stopping in the rain at Spa to check on his colleague Lando Norris who has had an accident. Many fans, including those who found him dogged and unsympathetic in the past, celebrate Vettel today. They celebrate the people. The good spirit of Formula 1 – which luckily remains a little longer.
.