Sebastian Vettel wears a t-shirt highlighting climate change in Miami
Vettel wore a T-shirt raising awareness of the rising sea levels around the city of Miami during the build-up to the debut race last weekend

The global climate crisis has made Sebastian question whether racing in Formula 1 is the right thing to do.

The four-time world champion, speaking on Question Time, has become a campaigner on environmental issues.

He wore a T-shirt in Miami last weekend to highlight the threat of rising sea levels.

Human rights and LGBTQ+ issues have been spoken about passionately by Vettel.

He said it was his passion to drive a car. I love the car when I step in it.

When I get out of the car, I think about whether or not we should travel the world.

When asked if his stance on the environment made him a hypocrite, he answered affirmatively, but said that he asked himself questions about protecting the planet every day.

We can stop being dependent on fossil fuels because there are solutions in place.

You have the ability to increase your energy supply with wind power and solar in Britain.

Every country has weaknesses and strengths.

If you go to Austria, you can take the water back down, because they have the Alps.

It is something that I am asking myself. Certain things are in my control and others are not.

There are things that I do because I think I can do them better. Is it possible that I take the plane every time? When I can take the car. There are things in my control and things outside.

It is important for countries to shift away from relying on fossil fuels for their energy needs.

He said that action should have been taken a long time ago.

How do we get our energy? In the UK, you have a mixture of gas, coal and oil, while Germany is very dependent on Russia. If Russia turns the tap off, what do we do? We should not be dependent.

We have to shift into the next gear, not just for the reason of becoming independent but also to look after the bigger picture, that we live on a planet that is as enjoyable as it is today.

We should think of peace energy or freedom energy, which is renewable energy. That is the future, not just as a way of protecting people who can't afford bills but also to protect against the future.

He said that F1 played a positive role in society.

He said that they were entertaining people during Covid.

When everyone was about to explode, we were one of the first ones to start again.

I am not saying that Formula 1 has a huge position in the world to deliver entertainment. If you talk about entertainment, sports, culture, comedy, and a lot of people who couldn't perform, there's plenty of people. I think if we didn't have that, we would probably go crazy.

F1 has a plan for the future.

The hybrid engines used in the cars are the most efficient in the world. They have made a revolutionary step forward in thermal efficiency by increasing it to more than 50% from a standard road-going petrol engine.

The sport has plans to go net-zero carbon by the year 2030, which will increase the proportion of total power provided by the hybrid part of the power-unit to 50%.

The new engines will be fully sustainable, carbon-neutral fuels at the same time.

It is hoped that this will encourage the use of these fuels in the remaining internal combustion-engined road cars.

When the UK pledges to ban the sale of cars that are not powered by electricity and use sustainable fuels, there will still be millions of petrol- and diesel-engined cars on the roads.