Vettel to join Aussie ace in Porsche outing

The German will cut laps in the German marque’s current World Endurance Championship hypercar as the brand builds up to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Vettel has already spent time in Porsche’s simulator ahead of his outing in Aragon.

Having become an activist of sorts in the latter stages of his F1 career, the move towards biofuels has been a key pillar of the 53-time grand prix winner’s mantra.

He ran a 1992 Williams FW14B – a car he owns – on biofuel as part of the British Grand Prix two years ago. He reprised that outing at Goodwood last year.

The World Endurance Championship switched to biofuel in March 2022.

“I’m looking forward to testing the Porsche 963. I already got the chance to get a feel for the car during a rollout in Weissach,” said Vettel.

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

“Now I’m excited about the long run in Aragon and I’m looking forward to my time behind the wheel. It’ll definitely take an adjustment and some getting used to but everyone in the team is very open and helps me.

“This will be a new experience for me. We will then see what happens next in this respect – at the moment there are no further plans for the future.”

Thomas Laudenbach, vice president of Porsche Motorsport, added: “We’re delighted that Sebastian Vettel is interested in our Porsche 963.

“There was no question for us that we’d be thrilled to support his request for an opportunity to test and provide him with extensive preparation and plenty of time to drive our hybrid prototype – there’s no doubt we’ll learn a lot from his valuable feedback.

“Our 36-hour long run with Porsche Penske Motorsport and our works drivers at Motorland Aragón offers a perfect environment for this.”

Vettel will drive the car in a 36-hour test in Aragon as part of its preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

Joining Vettel for the test are the works drivers Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frédéric Makowiecki, Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor.

For Le Mans, Porsche will enter a third car through Porsche Penske Motorsport. Mathieu Jaminet from France has already been confirmed to helm the No. 4 car.