Sebastian Vettel makes New York appearance with new team linkup

Sebastian Vettel has linked up with a new team in New York where the four-time F1 champion embarked on his latest project.

Since retiring from F1 in 2022, Vettel has turned his attention away from racing and towards projects that benefit wider society, ranging from Race4Women events to support women in motorsport to raising environmental awareness.

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The 37-year-old has also recently completed a Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports course at Harvard Business School, whilst also training in agriculture at the BBZ Pfaeffikon centre in Switzerland.

Alongside education and activism, Vettel invested in the German SailGP Team in 2023, and has recently undergone a new environmental project with the squad in New York’s Hudson River.

SailGP is an international sailing competition which competes in multiple grands prix across the world, with Vettel joining the German team to undertake important research in New York’s iconic river.

Together with researchers from marine conservation group Gotham Whale, Vettel and the SailGP team took the waters to collect eDNA samples from the river to help understand which species live there.

The team wrote on social media that they also hoped to understand 'how shifts in biodiversity, including the rise of disruptive species, impact the natural balance of the ecosystem.'

Vettel’s new project takes F1 champion to New York

The SailGP team shared a video from the day which showed Vettel taking samples from the water, as the champion heard from the researchers about the level of pollution in the Hudson River and why they were investigating the species in the water.

“The water here used to support not a lot of biodiversity, you know,” Chris St Lawrence from Gotham Whale said.

“The city itself took both rook resources from the water and then polluted the water. Over exploitation of fisheries, we saw degradation of water quality.

“So that left our waters, what we understand to be relatively lacking in marine mammals.”

Vettel is not the only high-profile investor in a SailGP team, with Hollywood actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds announced as co-owners of Australia’s SailGP Team this month.

The team made their debut under their new name BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix on June 7 to 8, the same weekend Vettel underwent his environmental work in the city's river.

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A post shared by Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank (@sailgpger)

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