A few years ago, Sebastian Vettel came up with the idea of measuring his carbon footprint. Vettel started writing down every flight, every kilometer and every night stay. However, the result “blew away his senses”, as the former Formula 1 star revealed in an interview with “Red Bulletin”. “I started with 400 tonnes – only in relation to F1 (Formula 1, note). In the end I weighed 60 tonnes,” said the former racer.
For comparison: as announced by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, the CO2 footprint per square foot in Germany was 10.5 tonnes. At that point, Vettel took cost-cutting measures. In recent years he has participated in races by car or train.
Vettel also revealed that he has specifically cut down on flights. “Most of the reduction has been due to elimination of flights.” However, the four-time world champion insisted: “I don’t want to dictate anything to anyone or portray myself as an angel, but that’s how I started with myself. This step didn’t feel out of place, but was completely logical – like all the other small steps I took in parallel. I felt very satisfied.” He also enjoyed seeing things he might have forgotten about on the plane: “I realized that the perceived loss of time was actually no loss at all.”
Vettel has been very committed to environmental protection for many years. Topics such as human rights and equality are also important to Germans. But because of his past in Formula 1, Vettel has been repeatedly criticized. Following the 2022 season, Vettel is set to end his career in motorsport’s premier class in order to spend more time with his family. Since then, Vettel has been living on a former farm in Switzerland.
