"More time" is required before Sebastian Vettel can be ready to compete at Le Mans with a car that has the potential to win the prestigious 24-hour endurance race, according to a Porsche boss.
The retired four-time world champion, who has also been rumored to consider a return to Formula 1, recently took Porsche's 963 top-tier hypercar for an extensive test.
However, Porsche chose not to include the 36-year-old German in their third car lineup, opting instead for Le Mans veterans Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr, and Nick Tandy.
"Ultimately, one of the deciding factors was having Le Mans experience," Porsche team head Urs Kuratle mentioned.
Nevertheless, Kuratle emphasized that the opportunity for Vettel with Porsche is not off the table.
"For an OEM team like Porsche, this remains a topic of discussion, that goes without saying," he conveyed to motorsport-total.com regarding Vettel's prospects.
"That also applies to Vettel," Kuratle continued. "I think he's up for it. He indicated this himself after the tests."
"So it remains a topic, but we still have to see when and in what form it will come together. Nothing has been set in stone at the moment."
Kuratle acknowledges that Vettel's transition from open-wheelers to heavier sports cars is a significant adjustment.
"The biggest difference today is probably the weight of the car," he elaborated. "Both types of cars (hypercar and F1) are very complex, but they differ in design."
He also noted that Vettel is inexperienced in night racing and managing the track in the presence of much slower vehicles from different endurance racing categories.
"I just don't think any of this has been addressed before," Kuratle stated. "This means that Vettel now needs a little more time to get used to it than was previously the case."
