Energy minister slams Vettel ’hypocrisy’

A Canadian politician has slammed Sebastian Vettel for "hypocrisy" as the quadruple world champion continued his environmental activism in Montreal.

The German rode into the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve paddock on a rainbow-coloured bicycle wearing a t-shirt accusing Canada of "climate crime".

"Stop mining tar sands," the t-shirt declared.

He told the media: "What happens in Alberta is a crime.

"You chop down a lot of trees and you basically destroy the place just to extract oil. And the manner of doing it with the tar sands, oil sands mining, is horrible for nature."

Alberta’s energy minister Sonya Savage, hit back with a savage reply.

"I have seen a lot of hypocrisy over the years, but this one takes the cake," she said.

"Rather than demonising the oil sands, which is on a path to net-zero, people could look to lowering their own personal carbon footprint.

"Perhaps a pedal-car for Formula 1," Savage added.

As for her "hypocrisy" charge, Vettel said it would be bad enough if the 34-year-old was simply a Formula 1 driver.

But she said he is a F1 driver "with financing from Saudi Aramco, with the largest daily oil production of all companies in the world".

"It is reputed to be the single largest contributor to global carbon emissions, of any company, since 1965," said Savage.