Sebastian Vettel's F1 future depends on his guilty conscience — MPH

Mark Hughes

Aston Martin hopes improvements to its car could persuade Sebastian Vettel to stay in F1, but can he reconcile this with his climate crusade?

Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin F1 driver, at the 2022 Canadian GP

Vettel has much to consider with a decision on his future looming

Grand Prix Photo

With the confirmation today that AlphaTauri will be retaining the services of Pierre Gasly for another year (the Red Bull group having exercised its option on him) and the expected announcement in the next couple of weeks regarding Audi’s and Porsche’s F1 plans (expected to be the buying of stakes in Sauber and Red Bull respectively), F1’s future is beginning to take shape.

Will Sebastian Vettel be part of that future? He’s made no secret during the last couple of years that the prospect of retirement is something on his mind. But as a racing driver you are a long time retired and just coming up to 35, and seeing the soon-to-be 41 years old Fernando Alonso clearly enjoying his renaissance, he’s clearly anxious not to jump too soon.

Since Aston Martin upgraded its car to the Red Bull-alike bodywork in Spain it has been getting steadily quicker and Vettel has responded to that well. Judging by his pace during the practices in Montreal, had the team not misjudged the tyre pressure reduction needed as the track got drier in Q1, he looked capable of springing a major surprise. He’s now a regular in Q3 and the car is beginning to give him the messages which unleash his best stuff.

Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin F1 driver, at the 2022 Canadian GP

Performance step with AMR22 has brought more joy for Vettel this season, potentially pushing towards staying in F1

Grand Prix Photo

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack is very much hoping he will decide to stay. “We are talking,” he says. “We have a very good relationship and don’t have to set each other deadlines but at one point if we drag that too long we will run into trouble and he’s aware of that. But they are trustful discussions. From our side, we want to show him that we can improve the car. Barcelona was the first step. I’d like to show him another step then maybe it will be his desire to continue. We’ll see where we are after Silverstone, then we’ll talk.”

A second major upgrade of the car is coming at the British Grand Prix next weekend and so a lot may rest upon the effectiveness of that. But there’s more than just that in Seb’s decision-making process.

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Vettel has admitted that his new-found environmental concerns make him conflicted about being in F1. For all that the sport has contributed to the advance of green technology, it also generates an awful lot of flights and he acknowledges this makes him feel hypocritical. His helmet and t-shirt message calling Alberta’s mining of tar sands a climate crime made it easy for the Canadian Premier to call that an ‘almost cartoonish’ hypocrisy when he drives for a team sponsored by Aramco, which has “probably a higher carbon footprint than virtually anybody on the planet.”

Vettel’s conflicts on this matter are an extreme version of those facing almost everyone, in that we’ve been born into a fossil fuel-based economy where just to exist involves participating in that economy. Therefore anyone suggesting the need for the world to get off that system – which it surely does – will stand accused of hypocrisy at some level. But to use that as a reason to do or say nothing is not helpful. That way the planet’s ecosystems are destroyed as anyone who objects is accused of hypocrisy. It’s a system we’ve been born into and benefitted materially from, but that doesn’t make it wrong to object to the system in which we are all trapped.

That paradox is what Vettel is wrestling with. Meantime the team is really hoping he can resolve that conflict for a few more years as his impact there has been an eye-opener for them.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JUNE 17: Sebastian Vettel (GER) Aston Martin Formula 1 team seen during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 17, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Paolo Pedicelli ATPImages/Getty Images)

Vettel has made his feelings increasingly known on various climate issues

Paolo Pedicelli ATPImages/Getty Images

Last year technical director Andy Green said, “He’s moved us on. He’s shown the level of detail required to win and sustain performance. Literally no stone is left unturned. He has even caused us to change some of our processes because of his way of working. It’s been an incredible education. Continual work rate and exploring every opportunity, every area of the car in the utmost detail every session, every event and never giving up. It was a real eye opener.”

Vettel’s openness and willingness to inconveniently speak out on many matters, not just environmental, is a breath of fresh air in F1. It will be losing a lot if he decides he can no longer stand the hypocrisy.