The four-time world 🏅champion, who has advocated several environmental initiatives and spoken regularly about his concerns🥂 about the climate, became the first active F1 driver to join the BBC Question Time panel on Thursday evening. 

Vettel completed an internship in bio-farming during lockdown in 2020, took part in building a bee hotel at a school ahead of last year’s Austrian Grand Prix, and helped pick up litter from the grandstands after the British Grand Prix at Si💜lverstone. 

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Asked by Question Time host Fiona Bruce whether being an F1 driver makes him a hypocrite, Vettel, whose Aston Martin team has a title sponsorship with Saudi oil giant Aramco, said: “It d𓆉oes. 

“There’s questions I ask myself every day. I’m not a saint. I’m very concerned when it comes to the future [and] these topics, when it comes to ene🧜rgy, energy dependence and w🐻here we are going in the future.

“When it com🎐es to energy, we need to stop being dependent, and we can, because there are 💎solutions in place. 

"You know, in Britain, you have th🍌is sort of goldmine you're sitting on, which is wind, and you have the ability to increase your energy supply with wind power, solar.

"Every country has its strengths and w🐼eaknesses. If you go to Austria, they have the Alps and they have water, they can pump it up, store it, and get it back down.

“But getting back to your point, yeah it is true and it’s something that I'm asking myself.”&nbs🗹p;

Asked to clarify if he meant whether he should be racing in F1, Vettel, 🀅whose contract is due to expire at the end of the season, replied:“Yeah, and travelling the world. There are certain thi❀ngs that are in my control, and certain things are not.

"It's my pa💛ssion to drive a car. I love it. Every time I step in t𒈔he car, I love it.

"When I get out of the car, of course I'm thinking as well: 'Is this somethiꦕng we should do, travel the world, wasting resources?’

"On the other hand, you k🔴n♚ow, we were entertaining people during Covid," he added. 

"We were one of the first ones to start again, when everybody's head🌟s w♋ere about to explode, there were Formula 1 races back on. 

"I'm not 🌄saying Formula 1 has this huge position in the world to deliver entertainment. There's plenty of people - if you talk about entertainment, sports, culture, comedy - a lot of people who couldn't perform, and a lot of people missed that. And I think if we didn't have that, in general, we'd probably go mad.

“But there's a lot of these questions I ask m🧔yself. There’s a lot of things that I do because I feel I can do them better. Do I take the plane every time? No, not when I can take the car. 

'Bu﷽t there's certain things in my cont💮rol, and certain things outside my control.” 

F1 has outli☂ned its intention to be carbon neutral by the 🔯year 2030. 

Vettel wades in on ‘party-gate’ scandal 

Vettel spoke knowledgeably and eloquently about several current political issues, including the dub🌺bed 'partygate' scan꧋dal in the United Kingdom. 

Following an investigatiওon by the Metropolitan Police, Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a fine for breaking his own Covid lockdown regulations by attending an illegal birthday celebration in Downing Street on 19 June 2020. 

Asked for his thoughts on the matter, Vettel said: “I think that ꦯwhen you are in that position, there’s certain things that you just can’t pull off. 

“In the end, it is the Prime Minister who made the law and then breaks the law. I’m a father of three kids, if I’m training to explain to them something that I think is really important on how to behave, and I do the exact opposite, what will they make of i🐓t? 

“I would be the least credible person in front of🅷 them, then. We all do mistakes, we are all human. But I think there are certai𒀰n things that come with office, or with that job, that you cannot do.”