Sebastian Vettel: I want to keep my freedom for now

Last weekend, Sebastian Vettel was a special guest at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, driving historic cars from his collection – Nigel Mansell’s championship Williams FW14B and McLaren MP4/8, which Ayrton Senna spoke in in 1993.

Sebastian never took his children to the races, but he came to Goodwood with his whole family, with his wife Hannah, two daughters and a 3-year-old son.

Now the four-time world champion is most concerned about environmental issues, and at Goodwood he also carried out a special mission: his cars were filled with modern synthetic fuel that leaves no carbon footprint.

“The world is changing, although there are still people who don’t want to notice it, and I believe our common task is to try to do something to save the environment,” Vettel said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. – Remember what happened in Imola, where the Grand Prix had to be canceled due to heavy rain, and in Montreal the race was threatened by smoke from forest fires – whole forests burned out in Canada.

You can no longer pretend that nothing is happening. All of this applies to motorsport, because I remain a fan of it and I wouldn’t want the time to come when the races just stop being held. Work on the production of synthetic fuel has only just begun, but now it is made in special laboratories, and not taken from the bowels of the earth. And Formula 1 should also actively participate in these processes.

I was at the Monaco Grand Prix where I had a conversation with Stefano Domenicali, president of Formula 1, and I shared some ideas with him. The World Cup has a great responsibility in this, also because it attracts a lot of attention.”

When Vettel was asked if he had received any offers to participate in a particular project, he replied: “There are many offers, and very different ones. But for now I want to keep the freedom to do the things I love, spend more time with my kids and understand my own state of mind, which is what I want to do in the future.

Together with my family we have already made several trips to the house on wheels and I would like to enjoy it for as long as possible. But I already understand: there will come a day when I want to take on a new challenge. But for now I’m happy with everything and I’m not homesick for Formula 1.

I don’t watch all the races, sometimes it’s enough for me to watch a selection of the highlights, and I’m not surprised that Max Verstappen wins most often – Red Bull does the best job. The team and Max show an enviable stability, and this is very difficult to achieve. He practically does not make mistakes, but every era has its heroes.

Once I won most of the races, before that Michael Schumacher dominated the championship, after Lewis Hamilton… It is possible that Red Bull can win all the races this season. While McLaren came closest in 1988, Mercedes may have had a chance in the recent past as well. However, there are always many variables, technical problems can arise, someone can make a mistake, accidents also happen. But if you lead consistently, then of course you have more control over everything that happens during the race.

Sebastian also said a few words about the situation of the Ferrari team, for which he played from 2015 to 2020: “Since I remain a Scuderia fan, I am very worried about her when I see her not able to compete for high fighting positions. . I hope Maranello finds a way to solve this soon, although it is a very difficult task.”