COTA Honors Retiring F1 Legend Sebastian Vettel With Ingenious “296” Gesture at US GP

We all, as Formula 1 fans, know how passionate Sebastian Vettel is when it comes to social causes. One social cause that is truly close to his heart is climate change. Now that he has decided to say goodbye to Formula 1 for good, COTA has the perfect to honor the 4-time world champion.

It has been a long time since Sebastian Vettel won a Grand Prix, but he wins his fans’ hearts so often with his kind deeds. Whether it’s staying back at the Silverstone to clean the stands after the race or visiting sick patients and NHS workers in a hospital, the Formula 1 audience loves him for all his initiatives.

COTA’s unique way of honoring Vettel

Earlier this year, in an interview with BBC Question Time, Vettel admitted questioning his job of traveling around the world to race in a sport that burns a lot of fuel. Later, in an interview with CNN in September, he criticized Formula 1 for not doing much for the environment despite making large profits. This ability to take on the establishment he works for is what separates him from the rest.

Therefore, it was a perfect way to mark his exit from the sport when COTA decided to plant trees to his name. Through his official Twitter handle, Formula 1 reporter Phillip Horton revealed that COTA will plant 296 trees to mark Vettel’s 296 race starts until the 2022 US GP. In the photo that Horton posted along with the caption, Vettel is digging the ground to plant a tree.

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Talking about the initiative Formula 1 can take in the CNN interview, Vettel said, “we have big events, a lot of people attending so you need to have the infrastructure in place to transport these people if you want to stop them coming by car, for example, which here in the Netherlands, works well because it’s so isolated and there’s only two roads and it would be a disaster if everybody could come by car.”

Fans support the initiative by COTA and praise Sebastian Vettel

In the initiative taken up by COTA, they will plant the first 20 trees within the campus. The rest of the trees will be planted in a nearby grove to help with floodplain restoration. The grove will appropriately be called the Vettel Grove.

Lauding the effort, the fans reacted.

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Formula 1 fans will definitely miss Seb for a very long time after he retires. The legacy he will leave behind will certainly be a lot more than just racing.