“IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU leave behind, it’s about what you take with you.”
With this gnomic utterance Sebastian Vettel introduces a glossily shot video produced by Aston Martin to mark his departure from F1. As the Hans Zimmer-esque soundtrack soars to a pinnacle of glassy strings undercut by a persistent bass clef rumbling, the impression is one of a driver thoughtfully shimmying out of the door, shrouded in a fog of aphorisms.
How to parse this apparently profound and yet profoundly counter-intuitive statement? During what we might call the third phase of his F1 career Vettel has undergone another transformation, into what some may call (disparagingly) a ‘social justice warrior’. But here’s the thing: he doesn’t care what label you might want to apply to his activism. Neither does he expect any of his now former colleagues and rivals to after the Abu Dhabi GP, “It’s for other people to decide what a legacy is but you can try to have an influence on that. You should just be yourself. As much as you have role models, you still have to learn to find your own way, stand up for the things that are important to you. They don’t have to be the same for all of us.”
