'Depressing to see how little progress there is in that area'

For hours the drivers sat in a meeting room on Friday night of the race weekend in Saudi Arabia. Vettel was informed, but was not present at the circuit himself. The German had a corona infection and therefore missed the race in Jeddah. In retrospect, the Aston Martin driver is happy about that.

Racing in Saudi Arabia

''I was glad I wasn't in Saudi Arabia, considering everything that happened,'' says Vettel prior to the Imola Grand Prix. The German finds it difficult to state for himself whether he would have driven or not, but the fact that it had to take four hours also means, in his opinion, that it was not very easy.

''In itself, talking to each other is something positive. You would hope that some leaders in the world would do that a little more often in these times. But in the end, as drivers, as sports people, we shouldn't be in the position to talk about this. It's not our responsibility. Experts in different fields should be able to indicate in advance whether it is safe to go to certain places.''

Formula One calendar

Vettel misses decisiveness at Formula 1 in that respect. He also states that the sport does not do enough for the climate. Large organizations and countries must take responsibility. ''It's frustrating and to some extent depressing to see how little progress there is on climate.''

According to Vettel, however, the biggest pain point is the amount of travel. The German doesn't understand why they are in Europe now and have to go to America for the next race, then back to Europe and then back to Canada. According to Seb, the calendar needs to be looked at in order to do more for the climate.