{"id":1105370,"date":"2022-06-24T11:05:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T10:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/?p=1105370"},"modified":"2022-06-24T11:08:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T10:08:09","slug":"sebastian-vettels-f1-future-depends-on-his-guilty-conscience-mph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/mark-hughes\/sebastian-vettels-f1-future-depends-on-his-guilty-conscience-mph\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Vettel’s F1 future depends on his guilty conscience \u2014 MPH"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the confirmation today that AlphaTauri<\/a> will be retaining the services of Pierre Gasly<\/a> for another year (the Red Bull<\/a> group having exercised its option on him) and the expected announcement in the next couple of weeks regarding Audi\u2019s and Porsche\u2019s F1 plans (expected to be the buying of stakes in Sauber<\/a> and Red Bull respectively), F1\u2019s future is beginning to take shape.<\/p>\n

Will Sebastian Vettel<\/a> be part of that future? He\u2019s 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<\/a> clearly enjoying his renaissance, he\u2019s clearly anxious not to jump too soon.<\/p>\n

Since Aston Martin<\/a> 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<\/a>, 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\u2019s now a regular in Q3 and the car is beginning to give him the messages which unleash his best stuff.<\/p>\n

\n \"Sebastian\n
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Performance step with AMR22 has brought more joy for Vettel this season, potentially pushing towards staying in F1<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack is very much hoping he will decide to stay. \u201cWe are talking,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have a very good relationship and don\u2019t have to set each other deadlines but at one point if we drag that too long we will run into trouble and he\u2019s aware of that. But they are trustful discussions. From our side, we want to show him that we can improve the car. Barcelona<\/a> was the first step. I\u2019d like to show him another step then maybe it will be his desire to continue. We\u2019ll see where we are after Silverstone<\/a>, then we\u2019ll talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s more than just that in Seb\u2019s decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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Related article<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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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\u2019s mining of tar sands a climate crime made it easy for the Canadian Premier to call that an \u2018almost cartoonish\u2019 hypocrisy when he drives for a team sponsored by Aramco, which has \u201cprobably a higher carbon footprint than virtually anybody on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vettel\u2019s conflicts on this matter are an extreme version of those facing almost everyone, in that we\u2019ve 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 \u2013 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\u2019s ecosystems are destroyed as anyone who objects is accused of hypocrisy. It\u2019s a system we\u2019ve been born into and benefitted materially from, but that doesn\u2019t make it wrong to object to the system in which we are all trapped.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n \"MONTREAL,\n
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Vettel has made his feelings increasingly known on various climate issues<\/p>\n

\n Paolo Pedicelli ATPImages\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Last year technical director Andy Green said, \u201cHe\u2019s moved us on. He\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vettel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aston Martin hopes improvements to its car could persuade Sebastian Vettel to stay in F1, but can he reconcile this with his climate crusade? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":1105403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118712,122078],"tags":[115462],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105370"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105438,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105370\/revisions\/1105438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1105403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}