Vettel critical of new rules: "Engine is super-efficient, but it's useless"
Sebastian Vettel has recently gone 'green' and explicitly says so. That he still drives in Formula 1, seems difficult to combine. The four-times world champion understands the scepticism and does not shy away from a conversation about it.
Vettel prepares for criticism
For example The-Race.com asks the Aston Martin driver if he is ready for the criticism he might get for his stance on a climate-neutral world, while still active in Formula 1. Vettel certainly is. The German agrees that the combination is not obvious, because Formula 1 is not green yet. Vettel admits that there are plenty of innovations and opportunities in Formula 1 to make the sport a lot greener without compromising on the spectacle on track.
With the new regulations, Formula 1 is again trying to take climate and nature into account. Vettel calls the new regulations promising, but places a big caveat: "The engine is super-efficient, but it’s useless." After all, the new engine does not contribute to the production of engines that could possibly be used on the road, the Heppenheimer knows.
F1 must remain relevant to the automotive industry
Vettel wonders aloud what the relevance of such an engine is, then. At the moment, people are looking at ways to make the technology created and developed in F1 more relevant for improving the car industry. Vettel says it's a good thing, but he's not optimistic if it doesn't happen soon.
If F1 doesn't speed up, the sport will even disappear according to the driver. Vettel concludes: "We are at the point where we know we made mistakes. There is no more time to keep making mistakes." Vettel himself does not come up with a good answer yet; that also proves to be difficult. The driver emphasises that F1 at least has the capacity to do more for the environment.
F1 shouldn't be about developing technology that can be used in road cars. Obviously, if some of the tech can be transferred, then good. I don't think manufacturers should be in it just for that reason though, and the governing bodies shouldn't mandate anything like this. F1 is as much about the spectacle and entertainment as it is anything else. The best drivers in the best cars, the noise, smell, all what makes F1 what it is. We have Formula E for those who want it, drivers included. All of our sports are being used as platforms now for politics, and woke agendas, and they're no better for it.
Vettel is obviously correct. F1 has to move to fully electric to be relevant to mass produced cars. It needs to be much faster than Formula E with bigger cars and a complete rethink: big problem?= Lack of noise... add air driven sirens?
OMG that's hilarious. You would get all new fans that didn't know the difference. F1 would be a no money obscure sport until a whole new generation latched on to it. In other words, death to F1. It would have to be called something else. Like "The Jetson's" or "Crypto Car Metaverse". ?
He is of course correct by his green view: if it bothers him that much he should put his money where his mouth is and give up his seat to a younger driver. We should just start producing goods in Europe again and ship less stuff in from Asia .. ships polite far more than passenger cars as a whole .. of course much easier to get the masses to pay for electric cars than have the powerful lobbyists ban polluting cargo ships …
i agree with you that shipping is a big poluter. but with ships the general rule is the bigger the ship the more economic it is. a car can never come close to effeciency to tonne/kilometer as ships do
Sorry mate but global value chain, doesn't work like that. It's almost impossible for any country to become closed once it has seen globalization. Moreover shipping is never and issue, untill of course shipwrecks occurs. Private jets, ever increasing personal vehicles and defence equipments are
I read a lot of moaning here. Why does everyone think green means EV? There is so much to gain with green bio fuel. New set of rules. 1000hp/1000nm max measured at the rear wheels. 100% green fuel wich is regulated by selling it 100% the same at the pump and be safe to use in all current cars and at normal price. And let the amount of fuel used free, and let the engine concept free. Let the manufacturers decide to use their own favorite engine layout. Have a minimum weight of the entire PU so you are not limited by miniscule engines. This way alot of new manufacturers will come it because the tech developed is usable straight away. And each car will have their own sound which makes it beter for the fans. Do you want a faster car for the race? Make your engine more economic with the same power output, so you need to take less weight.
2026 regulations are pointless. What manufacturer will invest money in ICE development by then? Should switch to electric only 2023.
And no fans. No fans...no money. No money.. No F1 Quit being one of the sheep. Electric is not the answer... Mark my words but this will come full circle. I'm not saying going back to a smoking pollution king primitive engine but the technology has caught up now that the combustion engine carbon footprint is absolutely negligible.
Sorry Seb but EV's are not the future, they are a greeny, tree hugger fad for hypocrites...there is a company in Squamish, BC Canada that is pulling C02 out of the atmosphere, combines hydrogen split from H20 using renewable hydro power to make synthetic jet fuel, diesel and gasoline that is clean and carbon neutral for same price as fossil equivalent...internal combustion will prevail...thankfully
Julian if you think that can be scaled up to replace the 11,500 million tonnes crude oil annual equivalent of total fossil fuel consumed by humanity without breaching most rules of physics you probably need STEM subject upgrade.
Nothing is ever a turn key replacement. Never. Starting somewhere is better than nothing.
Man he never said EV, he's telling that F1 should find a balance between entertainment and environment
Vomit inducing virtue signaling. Time to retire and stop being a hypocrite. Oh but wait, they give me so much money. This is the equivalent of Greta screaming at us while traveling to her scolding sessions in a 50 million dollar carbon fiber yahat that runs on diesel most if the time.
Who cares if the engines can't be implemented for road cars. This is motor sports not Greenpeace.
Yeah nobody cares just that if it continues, our great grandsons might be last generation Earth will see
ICE and green technology do not have to exist in opposite worlds. Research is ongoing into bio-fuels. There are a number of ways F1 can influence carbon footprint reduction. They could include the use of Hybrid or EV transport vehicles. The air freight industry should be planing their transition to bio-fuel and electric technology for propulsion. Granted it would take a lot of years to develop a viable EV transport plane. At any rate, Vettel is right. There are a bunch of ways to adapt to green technology.
No..... Remember...no fan, no F1. No fan, no sponsor. No sponsor, no money. No money, no driver paycheck No driver paycheck, no driver No driver, no F1. See how this cycle works? Go all electric engine and zero sound, the above sequence begins. Idiot politicians are ruining everything. The emission footprint of today's complete combustion engine is negligible. It really is. I work in that industry.
f1 is anything but green. Flying cars around the world even less so. F it bring back the V8 v10 20000 rpm and refuel. let it be a racing spectacle
Too many ?⬛s around to bring back refueling. Or the V-12 or V-10s
Yeah, I wonder what the percentage is that car racing on the whole is contributing to greenhouse gasses. Miniscule I would imagine. So ridiculous that while some do there part other like China, India and others go on polluting. I'm a bit ambivalent about whether it's real or not but if it is then it will happen no matter how much our pathetic U.S. politicians and actors cry about it.
Well just because India is second most populous, is doesn't mean it's polluting. In terms of per capita greenhouse emission India is 1.82 tonnes/person/year, where the global average is 4.2 tonnes. Its nothing when you compare to USA's 16.5/ China's 10/EU' 6. Its not to show off, it's just that India is really slogging hard for Environmental change in every possible way. Just that all developed countries feel that they have already developed so why should they contribute to climate change and in every meeting some of them give up on their commitments.
"Sebastian Vettel has recently gone 'green' and explicitly says so. That he still drives in Formula 1, seems difficult to combine". It's only difficult to combine (sic) if you have zero capacity for intellectual thought. The idea of staying within a sport, a profession, an industry, a political party etc., when you’re not happy with its ethos or direction, in order to better effect change from within has been around throughout history. Though it’s obviously news to Gpblog.
He's right. New production cars will become more and more electric. But F1 is also about entertainment.
That is why the 2026 engines have got rid of the MGUH, which is 100% useless in road cars. If Vettel is so very environmentally conscious (like Hamilton claims to be as well) then perhaps they would be better ambassadors for Formula E instead of F1
Yeah they can have slide shows showing what mining for cobalt and Lithium does to the enviroment
Wont happen. Not enough money. Just like Seb pissing and moaning about a race in Saudi Arabia because how they treat homosexuals and women, etc. He cares. Won't actually boycott the race because he'd lose at least a million dollars...cough cough...but he cares. WTFE
That's the point if you can usher a change in the pinnacle of motorsport, it will seep through whole industry automatically
Retire Seb. Go hug some trees. You arent fast enough or good enough to win anything again in F1 anywayZ
not much i agree with you, but in this i do. F1 is the top of automotive technology. if there is one place to develop cleaner and greener tech its F1. because they will not want to loose power and they wont.
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