‘Buzzin corner’: Sebastian Vettel reunites with F1 grid for ‘bee hotels’ in Japan

The four-time world champion, who retired last year, involved teams and drivers in his biodiversity project

Sebastian Vettel gathered drivers and teams together at Suzuka on Thursday (Getty Images)

Sebastian Vettel was back in the Formula 1 paddock on Thursday as he unveiled a number of “bee hotels” at the Suzuka circuit.

The four-time F1 world champion, who retired last year, is the leading voice in the sport on the environment and climate change – and continues to use his platform within the sport even after leaving the grid.

Present at his favourite track in Japan, Vettel invited all the drivers and teams to turn two of the track on Thursday, where he has formed a set of specially-created insect hotels.

The message behind the project is to spread the word of the importance of biodiversity in our ecosystems. Each team was able to customise and paint their hotel, while the kerb at turn 2 was painted yellow and black.

“I want, with this project, to create awareness about the importance and the subject of biodiversity,” Vettel said.

“[The bee is] the perfect ambassador for us around this project and idea to highlight the importance of biodiversity, because it stands not just for the bee but for all the other insects, so we see the bee as our ambassador. She will help us stress this very important message.

“It’s very exciting and a lot of work and passion went into the project. Hopefully this is just the beginning of an initiative and projects around the world… standing up for biodiversity, which is not just insects, it’s all types of animals.

“But it’s more than that as well: it’s all types of plants, all types of organisms, bacteria. And even more than that, we have to celebrate variety, not just in human beings, but also in nature – and we have to protect it.”

Vettel wants to spread the word of the importance of biodiversity in our ecosystems (Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton was full of praise for his former rival for passionately raising awareness for issues close to his heart.

“It’s great to see that he’s found his purpose,” Hamilton said. “It’s great to have Seb back this weekend. He sat down and told all the drivers about these plans.

“To be honest, in the history of the sport, I don’t know any other driver who’s ever been so outspoken and shown real compassion for the world outside of this little world that we’re living in. It’s really great that he’s utilising his platform.

“I always just hope that with the things that he’s doing, for example, that he inspires the other drivers to do something here – maybe in their own lane.

“But we all need to come together in this world to have a positive impact; to spread love, to spread compassion, to raise awareness for a lot of the problems – and there’s obviously millions of problems that we need to address – but biodiversity is for sure.”