Mansell's Williams was screaming at me, 'Why are you lifting!?' — Vettel's 'responsible' Silverstone blast

It’s not widely known that Vettel also owns a 1993 McLaren MP4/8 – the Ayrton Senna Monaco-winning car that was erroneously reported to have been bought by Bernie Ecclestone when it came to auction a few years ago.

Vettel has already had a private track day in it, having specifically asked to have Senna’s settings applied.

“I was pushing a little bit harder on that!,” he smiled. “Because I had a bit more time, now I only had like two and a half or three laps in order to wave as well and take the crowd in and enjoy.

“When I had the idea, I looked at the date and it was 2022, half a year ago I realised it was 2022. And there was the idea that 30 years ago Nigel won, and it would be great to take Nigel’s car out at Silverstone.”

Zero-carbon synthetic fuel will help keep F1 alive

Running on synthetic fuel, which is produced by combining hydrogen and carbon with renewable energy, was a big deal to Vettel, who didn’t want to be seen running around purely for his own pleasure.

“It was vital, I wouldn’t have done it otherwise,” he said. “As much as I love the car, and obviously I bought the car at the time with the ambition to drive it, I think it is so important that you do it in a sort of responsible manner.

“I don’t want to go too far, but if you just do it and then burn the fuel, somehow it’s not right. Once we found the fuel and then had the help from Renault, also Williams and the heritage department to check the car, which took some time, a bit longer than we thought. So it was a bit tight at the end to get everything together! But it worked. It was great.”

F1 has targeted a move to sustainable fuel as part of the new power unit regulations that are coming for 2026. Vettel’s demo run begged the obvious question – could or should that happen even earlier? There has already been a move to 10% biofuel content for this season.

“You wonder what’s going to happen to motor sport,” he said. “Looking down the line, [in] 2026 there is the plan for synthetic fuels to come in. In which form, where they get their hydrocarbons from, is not entirely clear yet.

“You need to understand the bigger picture, obviously, what happens on the road is different to what happens on track. You have 1.5 or one billion cars, what do you do with them in the future? Other than cars, you have trucks, you have ships, you have planes, which might be even a bigger question, what to do with them.

“To bridge that form of transportation into the new era, I think it is a great technology. But it’s not like, okay, now we have synthetic fuels, that’s the full answer. I think we need to be honest and tell the truth from the beginning.

“It can be and is probably the way to keep especially the historic part of Formula 1, or racing in general, motor sport alive. And doing what we do in a much more responsible manner.

“I paid for that fuel I was using €5.95 (£5) per litre. Which is more expensive than normal fuel, significantly, but you mustn’t forget that the machinery of normal fuels and what I bought is very different.

“So there is plenty of scope to come down on price. And equally, the other side will continue to go up mid-term. Long-term, it will only go up. The fuel that we are running in F1 is four or five times at least more expensive than what I used last week.”

The new 2026 engine regulations must ensure that the wider world could benefit from F1 innovations, says Vettel.

“It can be uncontrolled, and maybe run in a way that our engines are now so complex that you will never benefit from those on the road,” he added. “I think that’s where it needs strong guidance and governance in terms of okay, this is what we set out to do for the right reasons. And the right reasons again, coming back to the budget, are very clear and simple.

F1’s net-zero future

Vettel says there’s a bigger picture than just the fuel used in the cars. F1 already has a target of net zero for 2030, and is making some progress towards that by rationalising the calendar, and making transport routes more logical.

“Look at the calendar: does it make sense to go to Miami and back? Makes no sense. It’s a no brainer. So stuff like that, those are the big wins. So you need to look at everything.”

Vettel has a clear way of describing the future as he sees it: “The way I understand it in general is very simple. We have a certain budget of emissions left. And we are part of that budget, all of us, you me, F1, sports, in many ways.

“So the way it’s going now, at some point we will run out of the budget, and then what? As much as we’re panicking now, inside F1, our bubble, we are not able to bring a new update to the car because we need to look at money and we have no money left in our budget?

“Well, the same way we have to think about the budget that we have left in terms of emissions.”

Fifteen years after the fresh-faced youngster made his debut with BMW Sauber at the US GP Vettel has developed into a thoughtful and articulate elder statesman of the sport with some grace and style.