This article first appeared on RTL.de.
Sebastian Vettel has caught his breath after 25 years of Formula 1. For the first time he was able to relax and enjoy the beginning of the year with his family. No preparation, no appointments, no test drives, no Formula 1 start. Instead: A long vacation with the family. "We took the bus to Scandinavia for the Race of Champions," says Vettel. In Sweden, 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the F1 pensioner formed Team Germany with Mick Schumacher – the buddies made it to the semi-finals.
The Vettel family used the invitation for a long trip. "We took our time for a nice, long round trip. I think we drove almost 6,000 kilometers." The Vettel bus toured Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark back to Switzerland. "That was very nice. Since then we've been enjoying our - until now - new everyday life at home with the children. Everything that has been left behind in recent years is worked on. Of course I'm collecting a lot of ideas for the future," says the 53rd -time Grand Prix winner.
Where Vettel wants to do even more, learn even more, are environmental and climate issues. He came to Vienna as an ambassador for the "Organic Bees Apple" project. As such, the German had already set up a bee hotel with children as part of the Austrian GP in Spielberg in recent years. Now Vettel is committed to the idea of a "digital flower meadow ". Anyone who wants to help the bee can use a "blockchain" to acquire a so-called "token" and thus shares in a real flower meadow in nature. The goal: to protect the habitat of the bee, especially the wild bee - and thus also biodiversity.
Vettel has already started at home in Switzerland. "We have a flower meadow in the shape of a heart." It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. "When it's buzzing and buzzing in the meadow, that's great," says Vettel. It's about "taking back islands in a world in which man has increasingly pushed back nature".
Everyone can make a contribution to environmental protection, says Vettel. It is a matter close to the heart for the ex-F1 driver. The whole discussion about the climate is "not about our beautiful world, but very much about our continued existence," says Vettel. "We don't have much time," he says, referring to forecasts by climate researchers, which present bleak scenarios if humanity does not act decisively.
And Formula 1? Still plays a role for Vettel – but he now follows her "quite normally as a viewer in front of the television", albeit as one, "with a lot of background knowledge". And: Vettel does not rule out a comeback. "Everything is possible at the moment," says the four-time champion. "It can go in all different possible directions. It's also possible that in six months I'll go crazy, I can't stand it on the couch and want to drive again. But it's also possible that my passion will go in a completely different direction turns and my ambition to be able to bundle all the experiences into another project."
