Former Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel has continuously advocated for various different passions of his since he retired from the sport, including racing with sustainable fuels and nurturing female driving talent.
However, the four-time champion has revealed that he regrets not using his platform while he was in the sport to help bring more awareness to those causes.
After making his F1 debut in 2007 with BMW, the German driver joined Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) and secured his maiden race win the same year. By 2009, he had been promoted to Red Bull Racing where he celebrated four consecutive drivers’ championships in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Vettel decided to make the move to the iconic Ferrari team in 2015 and his last move was to Aston Martin in 2021 before he retired at the end of 2022.
During an interview on the BBC Sportsworld podcast, Vettel explained:
“When I started as a rookie, I was solely focused on racing and it was the only thing that was occupying my day, really.
“But towards the last couple of years, I think it’s probably one of the things, maybe the only thing that I would say I regret, is not to speak out earlier in my career and seeing the potential power in terms of reach and audience that you might have as a professional athlete to inspire people.
“Since then [I’ve been] trying to spread messages that are important to me.”
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
Photo by: Patrick Vinet / Motorsport Images
In 2021, Vettel organised a female-only kart race in Saudi Arabia in order to give more young women a platform to get into motorsports. He said to the media at the time:
“I was trying to pass on some of my experiences in life and on track to do something together to grow their confidence. Obviously in Saudi Arabia women have only been allowed since 2017 to drive a car so some of them had a license others they did not, some of them were huge F1 enthusiasts, others had nothing to do with F1 or racing before today. So it was a good mix of women from different backgrounds and a great event, everyone was extremely happy.”
Discussing the initiative on the podcast, the former Red Bull driver noted:
“I’ve been there in 2021 launching the ‘Race for Women’ event which was mostly about taking young girls and women to the track and giving them a glimpse of racing in go-karts and we had a fun day and that’s the story we’re trying to continue to tell.
“It’s always difficult with these things how much impact you might have. Certainly we had a lot of impact on all these girls and gave them a lot of courage for the future to speak out in a country that is changing and evolving and things are improving. So the intention really is to go back and continue once we’ve sort of planted the seeds and give those girls and women a little bit of a voice.
“When I did go-karts in Europe I raced girls but it was very rare. The more girls we have participating and less of these stereotypes that girls can’t race, I think it’s positive, it’s good evolution. It is important in Europe but it’s even more important I think in a place like Saudi where you can feel things are opening up, maybe not with the speed we all wish or some people expect but there are steps. It’s great to see these girls get a chance to get behind the wheel.
“It’s about spreading the message and keeping planting the seeds, inspire those girls and young women. But inspiring people around the world as well with the platform that I have.”
