F1 Racing Driver Sebastian Vettel is Very Worried About Climate Change

You might think you know hypocrisy, but German Formula 1 racing driver Sebastian Vettel is here to shatter whatever previous misconceptions you might have left.

Vettel, who has previously driven for multiple Formula 1 teams such as BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Red Bull and Ferrari, arrived at a press conference prior to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal wearing a shirt criticizing the Canadian oil and gas industries.

Now driving for Aston Martin, Vettel’s shirt specifically criticized Alberta’s oil production, displaying the messages “Stop Mining Tar Sands” and “Canada’s Climate Crime.”

However, in an incredibly unsurprising turn of events, Vettel’s team Aston Martin is sponsored in part by Saudi Aramco, the single largest producer of oil and gas in the world.

This did not escape the notice of Alberta’s Energy Minister Sonya Savage, who pointed out that Saudi Aramco is “reputed to be the single largest contributor to global carbon emissions, of any company, since 1965.”

Rather than demonizing the oilsands, which is on a path to net-zero, people could look to lowering their own personal carbon footprint. Perhaps a pedal-car for Formula 1? 👍👍🏎️ 3/3

— Sonya Savage (@sonyasavage) June 17, 2022

A report from Canada’s National Post quoted Vettel explaining his actions, which included announcing he intended to wear a special helmet to “raise awareness”

“I think what happens in Alberta is a crime because you chop down a lot of trees and you basically destroy the place just to extract oil, and the manner of doing it with the tarsands, oilsands mining, is horrible for nature,” Vettel said. “There’s so much science around the topic that fossil fuels are going to end, and living in a time that we do now, these things shouldn’t be allowed anymore, and they shouldn’t happen.”

Beyond the hypocrisy of criticizing oil and gas production in Canada while racing wearing the logo of the largest oil and gas producer in the world, Vettel apparently didn’t realize that the cars he’s been driving professionally for the past 16 years are powered by fossil fuels.

Even worse than the cars, massive Formula 1 support teams travel around the world to compete in Grand Prix events.

Just this year, races have been held in Spain, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Italy, Miami, Monaco, Azerbaijan and Canada, with further competitions scheduled in Austria, France, Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Austin, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Transporting people and materials for sport and driving inefficient race cars sounds much like a “Climate crime” than anything Alberta is doing.

Seemingly Vettel chose Canada instead of Saudi Arabia to make his hypocritical political statement likely because he knows that he’ll receive much more favorable media attention there. Principled stands are much easier to take when in friendly territory, of course.

The ability to signal virtue is apparently entirely unrelated to the ability to accept your own contribution to the issue you claim to care about. Vettel’s hypocrisy is remarkable, both in its scope and bewildering lack of self awareness.