Canadian minister points out Sebastian Vettel's “hypocrisy”

“Stop tar sands mining. The crime of Canada. » It is with this inscription written on his t-shirt that Sebastian Vettel showed up at the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit in Montreal on Thursday morning. Far from being a first for the German, whose positions for primordial causes such as the protection of the planet and the environment or equality between individuals have become commonplace. In Hungary, in 2021, he wore a rainbow t-shirt and mask in a country where the rights of the LGBTQ+ community are repressed. Colors once again displayed by the person concerned this week on the bicycle with which he arrived Thursday, in addition to the denunciation of this exploitation of tar sands, a mixture of raw bitumen, sand, mineral clay and water, whose main reserves are located in Venezuela and Alberta, province of Canada. Sebastian Vettel also spoke at length on the subject during the traditional drivers' press conference.

“Tar sands exploitation is horrible for nature”

“I read a lot about it because I find it...fascinating maybe isn't the right word, but there's a lot going on. We live in a time and age where we are so conscious of what we do. I think what's happening in Alberta is a crime because you're cutting down a lot of trees, and you're destroying the place just to extract the oil. Tar sands exploitation is horrible for nature. Obviously, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions have also increased since they started doing this. From what I've read, the site was only founded 20 years ago”, explained the four-time world champion in his tirade.

“In principle, you know, every country and every person has their opinions and their position, continued Sebastian Vettel. My personal opinion is that I disagree. There are so many scientific studies surrounding the subject of fossil fuels disappearing that in this day and age, these things should no longer be allowed, and they should not happen. So it’s only right to make people aware of what’s happening in the first place. I think a lot of people in Canada, a lot of people around the world don't know that and yes, it's a small gesture. We will also have a special helmet this weekend, to highlight this fact. We must think about future generations and the world we leave in their hands. We must take care of it and not destroy it. »

Alberta Energy Minister Strikes Back

This new position from Sebastian Vettel was not to everyone's taste, particularly the Minister of Energy of Alberta. “I've seen a lot of hypocrisy over the years, but this one really is the icing on the cake, tweeted Sonya Savage. A racing driver sponsored by Aston Martin, with funding from Saudi Aramco, complains about tar sands,” politics begins.

“Saudi Aramco has the largest daily oil production of any company in the world. This company is renowned for being the largest contributor to global carbon emissions of any company since 1965. Rather than demonizing the oil sands, which are on the path to carbon neutrality, people could seek to reduce their own footprint. personal carbon. Maybe a pedal car for Formula 1 ? ", she concludes. A reflection on carbon neutrality which comes at a time when many are pointing the finger at a Formula 1 calendar whose logic in this sense is sometimes complicated to follow. The great circus of the greatest discipline in motorsport has just completed some 8 kilometers to reach Montreal from Baku, where the previous round of the season took place only a few days before. 

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

—Hon. Sonya Savage, KC (@sonyasavage) June 17, 2022

This is not the first time that Sebastien Vettel has been called a hypocrite regarding the causes he supports.. Last month, while he was a guest on the British show BBC Question Time, presenter Fiona Bruce confronted him with what she considered to be a contradiction: isn't it hypocritical to take part in the debate? on environmental issues while he has been participating since 2008 in one of the disciplines known to be the most polluting on the planet? " It's true. And you are right to laugh about it”, Sebastian Vettel then assumed.

Vettel is not the first

“There are questions that I ask myself every day, he then developed. I am not a saint, I am really worried about the future and all the subjects that concern energy, energy dependence, and more generally the direction we are taking for the future (…) On energy, we need to stop being dependent and we can because there are solutions in place. In Britain you have a gold mine that you are sitting on, in this case the wind, and you have the opportunity to increase your energy reserve with the power of the wind and the sun. Not all countries have the same strengths and weaknesses. If you take Austria, they have the Alps and lots of water. They can pump it, store it and reuse it.”

“There are things that are within my control, and others that are not. Driving remains my passion, I love it, and every time I get in the car, I have fun. When I come out of it though, of course, I wonder if this is really something we should be doing, traveling around the world and wasting all these resources? Then on the other hand, we entertain people. During Covid, we were one of the first sports to resume (…) we do not have a monopoly on entertainment obviously, but without this entertainment, in the difficult period of confinement, we would all have gone crazy. In short, I ask myself all these questions. There are things I do because I think I can do them better. Do I need to fly every time? No, not when I can take the car. But like I said, there are some things I rely on and some things I don't. » 

Sebastian Vettel is in any case not the first to worry about the exploitation of tar sands. Leonardo DiCaprio and Neil Young have spoken out against this practice in the past. The environmental impact of the extraction of bitumen and its transformation into oil is in fact considered to be extremely significant between deforestation, releases of toxic products and even greenhouse gas emissions.