Having retired last year from Formula 1 after a glittering period in the sport, where he won four world titles, Sebastian Vettel is returning to the track at Goodwood Festival of Speed. This time, however, there’s a difference.

As a ‘Race without Trace’ sustainable motorsports advocate, Vettel will run two cars from his private collection up the Goodwood Hill using synthetic fuel. He has chosen P1 Fuels as his synthetic fuel provider of choice for the event. In recent years, Vettel has used his profile to add support to causes like Black Lives Matter and impressed viewers during an appearance on Question Time, where he eloquently voiced his opinion on the state of British politics in his non-native language. The ‘Race without Trace’ movement is so close to his heart, that he only agreed to return to Goodwood, for the first time since 2012, on the condition that he would be allowed to run his cars on synthetic fuels.

Vettel commented, “Synthetic fuels offer a solution to having fun, responsibly. A lot of people just don’t know that yet. It took me a long time to find a partner [P1 Fuels] that aligned with my beliefs on sustainable fuels, could deliver a direct replacement, and who also was commercially ready and viable to deliver that fuel.”

The first car that Vettel has chosen is his ex-Nigel Mansell-owned 1992 Williams FW14B, originally designed by Adrian Newey and has the same chassis as the 1992 F1 world title winning car. Also appearing at Goodwood with the German is his ex-Ayrton Senna 1993 McLaren MP4/8. Driven by the Brazilian legend in his sixth season in Formula 1 and designed by executive engineer Neil Oatley, the former owner of McLaren once described the MP4/8 as “one of the best cars we ever made.” The transition to using synthetic fuels is easy enough as both cars won’t require any mechanical changes when being fuelled by P1 products.

P1 Fuels already has motorsport credentials and is currently being used as the exclusive sustainable fuel provider for the World Rally Championship as well as working with Vintage Bentley in a recent race event at Castle Combe. Its commercial team is working towards bringing these fuels to the mass market at fuel stations in the near future, and thanks to new EU legislation, that may be a reality sooner than you think.

Words: Mike Booth
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