Sebastian Vettel will complete a Formula 1 demo on the Nurburgring’s full Nordschleife layout this September driving a car running on E-fuels.
The four-times F1 champion will be reunited with ‘Kinky Kylie’, the name he gave to his Red Bull RB7 chassis which he claimed his second world championship in 12 years ago.Vettel won 11 races with the car during the 2011 season, only missing out on the podium two times. The first time that happened was at the Nurburgring, where F1 raced on the 5.15km Grand Prix layout rather than the full 20.83km Nordschleife.
He rebounded by claiming his only ever home win in F1 when the series returned to the track in 2013.
The 35-year-old retired from F1 last year, and also launched a sustainable fuels initiative as he became increasingly focused on environmentalism.
In a month’s time he will drive the V10-powered Williams-Renault FW14B and V8-powered McLaren-Ford MP4/8, both of which are part of his personal collection of old F1 cars, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed using sustainable fuels.
He has previously demoed the Williams at Silverstone, and last drove a RB7 at the 2012 Goodwood FoS. Vettel left Red Bull for Ferrari in 2015, then moved to Aston Martin in 2021, meaning this is the first time he has piloted a Red Bull F1 car since the end of 2014.
His reunion with the car will come on 9th September, and Red Bull’s current reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo will also be on track at the Nurburgring in the Red Bull-organised day demoing the RB8 car from 2012.
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Jere (@jerejj)
14th June 2023, 19:15
RB7, as I expected, & I hadn’t realized MP4/8 was V8-powered & the same with FW14B V10 because the respective eras properly began later, so I double-checked that after the original turbo era, different cylinder amounts appeared simultaneously rather than only a single concept.
Andy (@andycz)
14th June 2023, 20:29
Hopefully it will not be rev limited as Michael had in 2013. Let’s smash the record!
zomtec (@zomtec)
14th June 2023, 20:36
I guess the 919 evo with Timo Bernhard is unbeatable.
Joe (@jb784)
15th June 2023, 0:31
It won’t be F1 that beats it IMO.
Can see an LMP1 revisit in the future though.
MacLeod (@macleod)
15th June 2023, 7:47
I think the track is more the problem for F1 cars it’s so bumpy certain slow corners….
The Dolphins
14th June 2023, 21:28
@andycz I don’t foresee Seb or Daniel pushing for a record breaking run given it’s positioned as a “demo” run, this is just Red Bull marketing, and I’m happy to see the two of them driving those cool cars on a cool track.
Short Circuit (@jjohn)
15th June 2023, 11:12
Ever so recently Marko responding to criticism from Ralf Scumacher about Mick lack of opportunity said RBR was interested in performance not marketing, but here we are, and I love it.
Not so thrilled that Daniel has been hit with a “3year BoP” penalty though.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
15th June 2023, 0:54
There is a lot mentioned about the car amd vettel. But in the title also e-fuels is mentioned. I think its mainly the efuel initiative Seb is promoting, not redbull. It is kinda weird and sad that the only mention in the whole article is that seb started “some e-fuel initiative”….
What is that initiative, what is its name and what is their goal? And what is e-fuel in the first place? ” E-lectrically charged gasoline so that the KERS system is boosted more?”
RandomMallard
15th June 2023, 12:59
@cdfemke
I thought that would be obvious. It’s sugar free Red Bull…
/s