Vettel completed almost two grand prix distances over 4 stints in Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 963 hypercar in testing at Aragon in Spain, logging 118 laps in its main pre-Le Mans, 36-hour endurance take a look at.
Porsche’s director of manufacturing unit racing, Urs Kuratle, remarked that Vettel “mastered it extraordinarily effectively”.
“Sebastian definitely does not must show that he can drive a automobile,” Kuratle instructed Motorsport.com’s sister website, Motorsport-Complete.com. “He had a specific amount of respect for the unknown automobile however dealt with it very effectively.”
Kuratle is aware of Vettel from their days collectively at BMW-Sauber in Formulation 1 in 2007: “He’s nonetheless the identical Sebastian, who actually will get his enamel into these sorts of issues. It was actually a refreshing expertise to find out about his impressions.
“Even for a four-time Formulation 1 world champion, there have been so many new issues to cope with: a brand new group and a reasonably advanced automobile. He mastered it extraordinarily effectively.”
Vettel has not taken half in any aggressive racing since leaving F1, though he’s understood to have been in preliminary talks final 12 months with Porsche buyer squad Jota for a World Endurance Championship programme.
Porsche will enter a 3rd manufacturing unit automobile at Le Mans to spice up its possibilities, having taken pole place, victory and a double podium end within the inaugural spherical of the 2024 WEC season in Qatar.
Porsche’s WEC star Kevin Estre mentioned of Vettel’s method to the take a look at run: “He was positively motivated. I noticed him briefly earlier than I bought in and he was speaking to the engineer, wanting on the telemetry and hanging on the radio. He wished to know all the pieces. He did his job.”
Sebastian Vettel exams the Porsche 963
Photograph by: Porsche Motorsport
Vettel has additionally been linked with an F1 comeback subsequent 12 months, most notably after a media tour final week to advertise a sports activities drink, when he said it “might be appealing and interesting”.
“He is speaking to numerous individuals; we solely examine it within the press,” added Kuratle of the hypothesis. “Nothing has been determined but about what he’ll do, when he’ll drive or whether or not he’ll drive for us sooner or later.
“That may solely change into clear within the subsequent few days or perhaps weeks. There’s not even a date but when it is going to be determined what, how and the place he’ll drive.”
Porsche has till 19 Might to call its drivers for Le Mans and solely Mathieu Jaminet has been named within the #4 PPM hypercar entry, with its different IMSA drivers wanting to take the vacant spots.
Vettel was joined within the take a look at by common WEC drivers Estre, Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor – together with reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining.
“We at all times search for the very best answer for the corporate, for the group, and we’ve got many drivers,” mentioned Kuratle. “I personally consider that we’ve got the ten finest drivers in sports activities automobile racing. That is greater than sufficient to have three vehicles [with three drivers each] at Le Mans.”
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