Vettel's Return to F1: Family First but Competition Looms

May 21 - Sebastian Vettel says he is still no closer to deciding to return to Formula 1.

The quadruple world champion retired after the 2022 season - although he has always left the door open for a comeback in the future.

Vettel, 36, has stayed connected both to F1 and motorsport in general, including a recent extensive test at the wheel of Porsche's Le Mans-ready prototype.

And he was at Imola last weekend, paying high-profile tribute to Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger with an on-track demonstration of his own 1993 McLaren, and having organised a jog with the F1 drivers to visit the Senna statue at Tamburello.

"Of course it was wonderful to be cheered on the track today," Vettel said last Sunday at Imola, according to Germany's motorsport-total.com. "A little bit of it was perhaps for me, but I was really here for Ayrton and Roland."

And Vettel insists that it wasn't part of a campaign to remind Formula 1 teams that he might be interested in activating a return to the racing grid.

"Of course I've thought about returning and I knew beforehand that I would think about it," he said. "But in the end nothing has changed.

"There are things that I miss and things that I don't miss. It's always a give and take, but Formula 1 is just very intense these days if you look at the calendar and the number of races there are."

Vettel left F1 declaring that his new priority would be his young family, including three children and his wife Hanna - and he says nothing has changed.

"Of course there are things I miss, especially the competition," said the former Red Bull and Aston Martin driver. "And things I don't miss, so that hasn't changed."

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