Four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel may be retired from the sport, but he is back in the paddock at Interlagos to promote his F①REST cause to bring attention to the plight of the rainforests of Brazil.
And he persuaded a few multi-World Champions to swap their Formula 1 cars for drawing pens to support the cause.
Sebastian Vettel: Now, this year, I’m coming back.
Vettel quit Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season as the four-time World Champion wanted to focus on his young family and environmental causes. He explained that the growing climate crisis and his wish to help in the fight against that was one of the reasons for the decision.
“Ultimately,” he added at the time, “I think the questions got bigger and bigger and more central to a point where I make the decision.
“I don’t hate racing from now on but it’s probably the majority that pulls me in a different direction and I’m happy to head in that direction.”
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The German has since turned Turn 2 at Suzuka into a bee hotel, written the exams for an agricultural degree and invested as the co-owner of Germany’s SailGP team.
He also run Nigel Mansell’s 1992 title-winning Williams Renault and Ayrton Senna’s 1993 Monaco Grand Prix-winning on P1 Fuels sustainable fuel.
This weekend he’s back in Brazil to promote the cause of Brazil’s rainforests.
“I’m back in Brazil,” Vettel wrote on Instagram.
“Last year I’ve traveled here to see and discover the Amazon rainforest, meet the indigenous people. I was very welcomed to their home. I saw how beautiful it is and how diverse and rich it is, but I also saw how fragile it is and how urgent it is to protect it.
“Now, this year, I’m coming back.
“And with F①REST – drawn together, I want all of us to draw a tree.
“All the drivers, fans, kids, old people, young people, people from different backgrounds. Everyone is invited to draw their very own tree and collecting them. And many trees make forests and make our beautiful diverse F1 forests.
“That’s why I’m here and that’s what I’m trying to do. Trying to raise awareness only by seeing how rich and full of life these ecosystems are, we can start to care. And if we start to care, we can heal.”
The end caption read, ‘There is still a race to win, SV’
Such is Vettel’s drawing (pardon the pun) power, the Instagram video captured world champions Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso drawing a tree, along with George Russell, Charles Leclerc as well as other drivers.
Getting creative to bring the forest to life. On Thursday, George and Kimi got involved in Sebastian Vettel’s latest project: F①REST – Drawn Together.
It aims to reconnect people and planet, turning thousands of individual tree drawings into a global collage.🌲 pic.twitter.com/9bYUgAXjHZ
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 7, 2025
Brazil not only hosted Prince Williams’ ‘Earth Shot’ awards this week but it is also the venue for the COP30, the Conference of Parties, which is the most important decision-making body within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
According to the UNFCCC, outcomes of the COP30 should look like a balance-sheet moment to reconfigure the investment landscape for governments, global banks and corporations for the remainder of the decade.
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