Sebastian Vettel will not come out of retirement, which began at the end of 2022, to participate in the next 24 Hours of Le Mans, on June 15 and 16. The four-time F1 world champion was enthusiastic after testing the Porsche 963 on the Aragon circuit at the end of March, but he is not part of the trio announced by the brand this Monday to drive the third official Hypercar on the next edition of the Le Mans classic.
Like last year, it was the Brazilian Felipe Nasr and the Briton Nick Tandy who were chosen to accompany the Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet, already assured of being there, while the American Dane Cameron will act as reserve driver. .
Le Mans experience taken into account
“After announcing the entry of a third car at Le Mans, we still had two driver positions available. The decision was not easy, said Urs Kuratle, the head of the LMDh program at Porsche. Ultimately, one of the deciding factors was the experience at Le Mans. Nick Tandy has participated eleven times and won with Porsche in 2015. Felipe Nasr has four races in La Sarthe to his name. In addition, the trio impressed us with good lap times and excellent teamwork during their joint campaign at Le Mans in 2023.” One time in the lead, the crew had abandoned the centenary edition due to a fuel pressure problem.
The two other official Porsches will be entrusted to the crews Matt Campbell-Michael Christensen-Frédéric Makowiecki and Kévin Estre-André Lotterer-Laurens Vanthoor. Three other 963s are entered by private teams and there will indeed be an F1 world champion at the wheel of one of them since Jenson Button is one of the Jota team drivers. Porsche, record holder for success at Le Mans, will be one of the favorites and will aim for a twentieth victory.
