Sebastian Vettel has called on Formula 1 introduce an independent body to help verify their sustainability claims to aid with transparency. F1 is making more of a concerted effort to push towards a carbon-neutral future, with the aim of being net-zero by 2030. The four-time World Champion has been a big advocate for combating climate change, but believes F1 needs to take further action and introduce an external body to ensure their claims going forward are credible. "Big organisations, whether it's business or sports events, probably need to dare to make a step to find an organ organisation to control them," he told media, including RacingNews365 . "If they don't stay within the limitations they put out, they face consequences." Vettel noted that while some organisations and governments make claims surrounding their sustainability efforts, the reality can sometimes be far from what is said in public. "We can put everything on a poster and a piece of paper and it all sounds great. But if it doesn't happen, so what?" he said. "Nations decide to sign an agreement for limiting [the world] to 1.5 degrees of global warming. If we don't manage to do so, then what what are the consequences? "I think the real transparent way would be to find an organ to control them. An external, independent body, to police them if they achieve their goals or not. That's the only credible way of doing it."
Questions over calendar decisions
The FIA recently unveiled the 2023 F1 calendar which features a record number of 24 races. But having previously claimed that more races will be grouped together regionally to avoid unnecessary travel, the planned schedule is not far off the normal timing of each race. Significant gaps between races including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and China while back-to-backs like Azerbaijan/Miami and Las Vegas/Abu Dhabi do not appear to solve the problem of reducing carbon footprint over the course of the season. Vettel questioned whether it's a step in the right direction to introduce more races, at the detriment of more travel for people who work in F1. "There is more interest in Formula 1: there's a bigger chance to make money and it's all fair and valid," he added. "If you look at the first three races, the easy wins would be to save on travels and flights. "Everybody will go there [to the Middle East] and go come back for three weeks in a row, which is fair, because everybody's got family and life wherever they are based. "You can't expect people to stay out for eight weeks at the beginning of the season, for example. "But if ask me how to solve it, I think that [an independent organisation] would probably be the most serious way."
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