Vettel appeals to F1: 'Enjoy, but do it responsibly'

Certainly in recent years, several components initially developed for Formula 1 have also found their way into consumer cars. Thus, Formula 1 is a little bit the breeding ground for normal road traffic. At the same time, there is still room for improvement, believes Sebastian Vettel.

Even during his active career, the four-time world champion was explicitly concerned with sustainability. Now that the German is retired, that does not mean he is no longer concerned about F1 and the environment. For example, Vettel stated last Friday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed broadcast on ITV: "Is it really helping future mobility to get better? Yes. What's the best way of doing that?"

'Formula 1 should be responsible entertainment'

"I mean Formula One is the pinnacle and the powertrains in Formula One cars are amazing, but they're so complex and you could argue how much of that technology is actually transferred and will be transferred to the road. I don't know if people will be happy to spend five or ten times the amount for their car that they're spending now. Probably not. It's also probably not fair so difficult, but then at some point maybe you need to draw the line a second. What is motorsport? What is Formula One purely entertainment and that's fine. But then at least you have to do it in a responsible way and that's not just that it starts with the cars."

Vettel is referring first and foremost to more sustainable fuels. Formula 1 has already announced that these will be used from 2026. "We could have done it last year. One liter of fuel already today in Formula One is more expensive than what I'm going to use here at Goodwood. So it is significantly more but then again, the price will probably come down of sustainable fuel but already now a Formula One fuel is a lot more expensive, like times five what I paid for my fuel roughly. Probably F1 will not confirm but that's what I what I heard. But anyway without getting lost in the details, I think it's you know, we have to get to a point and say, okay, what is our response or what do we want to do? We want to entertain we want to enjoy motorsport. Do it in a responsible way."