Sebastian Vettel isn't ruling out a return to Formula 1 though admits it is "not in my head right now".
The four-time world champion retired from racing at the end of last year after stints at Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin.
Since then Vettel has completed demo runs in older cars during 2023, including in his 2011 Red Bull RB7 on the Nurburgring Nordschleife just last week.
Sebastian Vettel reunited with his 2011 title-winning Red Bull RB7 at the Formula Nurburgring event 🤩
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 11, 2023
🎥: @redbullracing #F1 pic.twitter.com/H4pNEJSzFy
While he was there, Vettel spoke with Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle, who reeled off a list of former champions that left only to return to F1 and asked if he would be next to do so...
“I can’t say no because you don’t know," he replied, with Thursday marking 15 years since his first F1 win at Monza in 2008.
“I think it’s something that if you asked all of them, probably some of them would have said no and some of them I don’t know, but in the end, all of them came back. So I can’t exclude it.
“But it probably will depend much on when, obviously it’s not endless because, at 36, it isn’t like in 10 years' time maybe I think about it, then time has passed,” Vettel acknowledged.
“But it will depend on the challenge. But it’s not in my head right now and I’m enjoying the sort of outlook of the challenge of what to do next.”
Further prompting thoughts of a comeback is that Vettel has kept himself in 'race fit' shape physically.
“Yeah, but because I want to, not because I’m like, [going to] come back or if somebody falls out I’m going to, not because of that," he explained.
“I guess my neck is not up to speed, it can’t be, but everything else is pretty good I would say.”
Vettel also confirmed he will be at his favourite circuit at Suzuka for the Japanese GP next weekend, where he will help build beehives near the track.
But on Thursday, his former rival Fernando Alonso was asked about the prospect of Seb returning to F1.
"It’s up to him," said the Spaniard, who also took a break from the sport in 2019 and 2020.
"Obviously, if he thinks about [it]. As I said when Daniel [Ricciardo] came back, it is a challenge. It cannot be underestimated going back to F1.
“It could be a challenge, for sure.”
