F1 News: Watch Sebastian Vettel Return To Formula 1 In Legendary Moment At Silverstone

The former Red Bull driver gets behind the wheel of Senna's legendary McLaren MP4/8.

Sebastian Vettel, the retired F1 champion who left the sport at the end of last season, recently made a surprise appearance at Silverstone to greet his old comrade, Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was busy with his initial experience at the helm of the potent RB19, where he was taking part in Pirelli tyre testing. But after they shared their hellos, the German driver got behind the wheel himself of Ayrton Senna's iconic McLaren MP4/8.

The Australian's primary role with Red Bull was as a reserve driver, but only a day or so ago it was confirmed that he would take Nyck de Vries' seat at AlphaTauri. This came as no surprise, with rumours speculating this circulating for a good few weeks. But while we can talk about this all day, our focus turns to Vettel and his return to the wheel of an F1 car. 

The former Aston Martin driver paid a visit to Ricciardo in the Red Bull paddock where they exchanged their hellos and conversation. With both drivers having a strong history at Red Bull and actually driving together at the Milton Keynes team in 2014, it was great to see them together once again. But Vettel had something much more interesting to look forward to.

Sebastian Vettel took Ayrton Senna's McLaren MP4/8 out for a few laps around Silverstone 🤩

(via @formula_nerds) pic.twitter.com/7w2pnAcDin

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 12, 2023

He was lucky enough to take Senna's legendary McLaren MP4/8 for a spin around the Silverstone Circuit. 

This car competed by the hands of Senna and Michael Andretti, with the former winning five races with the Neil Oatley-designed car. The Brazilian came second in the Driver Championship behind Alain Prost, with Ron Dennis calling the car “one of the best cars we ever made”. 

This weekend, Vettel will be driving a number of F1 cars at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with the focus being on fully synthetic fuels. We'll hopefully be grabbing an interview with the driver between drives, so make sure to come back to stay up to date.