Vettel's Passion When Returning To The Mugello Circuit After 8 Years

Sebastian Vettel (Instagram @vettelofficial)

JAKARTA - Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Charles Leclerc on Tuesday visited the Mugello Circuit in Italy to undergo a private test session with Ferrari. After warming up ahead of the Formula 1 restart in less than two weeks, Vettel called the circuit in the Tuscany mountains worthy of hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Four-time world champion Vettel gets to work out in the morning session 116 days after last being behind the wheel in a pre-season test in Barcelona.

Due to restrictions on the number of engine tests this year, Ferrari brought the SF71H, their 2018 season car, which is equipped with non-racing tires from Pirelli.

We are proud to support the #WeRaceAsOne initiative! # Seb5 😍 @fia @ f1 #PurposeDriven pic.twitter.com/6hWpbA0uES

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 23, 2020

"I am delighted to be back in the cockpit after a break which is even longer than the usual winter break. I am also very relieved to see all of you in the team in the end," Vettel said as quoted by Ferrari's official website.

"It's great to feel this car once again and run it on a track like this spectacular. I think Mugello deserves to have a Formula 1 Grand Prix."

Mugello has been regularly included in the MotoGP calendar since 1994 and a number of continental GT racing events but has never held an F1 race before.

The circuit was once visited by the F1 group as a mid-season test venue in 2012 where a number of riders were very impressed with the 5.2km circuit. Vettel is one of them.

Time to swap seats 🏎🔀🏎 # Seb5 🤝 # Charles16 # essereFerrari🔴 #BackOnTrack @Charles_Leclerc @MissionWinnow pic.twitter.com/Y2vRA120NV

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 23, 2020

"I haven't been on this (track) in eight years, so it took a few laps for me to get used to the track and then enjoy it."

Reunited ❤️ # essereFerrari 🔴 #BackOnTrack #WeGoAgain pic.twitter.com/3XseTqkfsz

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 23, 2020

F1 has released an initial eight series in this year's calendar revisions starting with two Grand Prix in Austria on 5 and 12 July to the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on 6 September. They are also considering a number of options to stage races outside of the eight series on the revised calendar that has been released.

We can't get enough of seeing an # F1 car going around Mugello 😍 # essereFerrari 🔴 #BackOnTrack #WeGoAgain @MissionWinnow pic.twitter.com/kXDUQG6M0x

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 23, 2020