Vettel not ruling out racing at Le Mans in 2024

Sebastian Vettel may have launched his return to competitive motorsport.

Porsche has announced that its works Penske team will give the quadruple world champion, who retired from Formula 1 at the end of 2022, a full endurance test in its Porsche 963 Le Mans hypercar at the Aragon circuit next week.

"Vettel has already spent extensive time in a simulator to prepare for the Spanish circuit," Porsche said in a media release, adding that the 36-year-old has already had a shakedown outing at the Porsche test track in Weissach, Germany.

"I’ve always followed other racing series and my curiosity for endurance events encouraged me to just give it a shot," Vettel said.

"We will then see what happens next in this respect - at the moment there are no further plans for the future."

Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Michael Schmidt noted: "It is not clear whether Vettel will compete at Le Mans this year, but it is not impossible."

He added that if Vettel does want to race at Le Mans, he will almost certainly have to take part in at least one similar sports car race to prepare - either at Imola next month or Spa in May.