Domenicali gave the reason for the alteration two days ago when questioned by Sky Sports, partly pointing to F1 wanting not to be associated with “politics”.
“The [knee] gesture was important for the ones that believed that was an important gesture, because we need to respect everyone,” he said. “But now is the time to move on and take some other action. The action is the focus on the diversity of our community, and this is the first step.”
Vettel, along with vocal civil rights supporter Lewis Hamilton, who wore various pieces of clothing indicating solidarity with the LGBTQ+ movement throughout last year as well as taking the knee, said he was looking to himself and other drivers to come up with a new approach to the situation, whilst also putting forward his opinion on why taking the knee was stopped.
“I hope that as drivers we find a way to get together and find a slot of still expressing topics that are important to us,” he said. “Probably not all the drivers care, but I think there’s some that really do care, and it’ll be great to get together but probably [it] was getting a bit too strong and too individual for the business side of things.”