A Canadian politician criticized Sebastian Vettel for "hypocrisy" as the four-time world champion continued his environmental activism in Montreal. The German entered the paddock of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on a rainbow-colored bicycle, wearing a T-shirt accusing Canada of "climate crime.
A Canadian politician criticized Sebastian Vettel for "hypocrisy" as the four-time world champion continued his environmental activism in Montreal. The German entered the paddock of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on a rainbow-colored bicycle, wearing a T-shirt accusing Canada of "climate crime."
"Stop mining tar sands," the T-shirt declared. He told the media, "What happens in Alberta is a crime."
"You cut down a lot of trees and basically destroy the site just to extract oil. And the way you do that is with tar sands, mining tar sands with resin, it's horrible for nature," he continued.
Alberta's energy minister, Sonya Savage, hit back with a savage response. "I've seen a lot of hypocrisy over the years, but this one takes the cake," she stated.
"Instead of demonizing the tar sands, which are on their way to net zero, people can look to reduce their own personal carbon footprint. Maybe a pedal car for Formula One," Savage added.
As for the charge of "hypocrisy," Vettel said it would be bad enough if the 34-year-old woman were simply a Formula One driver. But she said he is an F1 driver "with funding from Saudi Aramco, with the highest daily oil production of any company in the world."
"He has the reputation of being the largest contributor to global carbon emissions, of any company, since 1965," Savage concluded.