The unusual reason Vettel will be back on an F1 track at the Japanese GP

The four-time world champion, who retired from F1 at the end of 2022, will be attending the race in Japan to launch his latest biodiversity project. 

Vettel’s project will see 11 “insect hotels” installed at Turn 2 of the legendary Suzuka circuit, with the German set to officially unveil ‘BUZZIN’ CORNER’ on Thursday. 

The corner's kerbs will be painted in a distinct black and yellow design for the weekend to help promote Vettel’s cause. 

Vettel’s team say it will mark “the starting point for future buzzing corners on race tracks around the world”. 

The 36-year-old recently set tongues wagging when he admitted there is a chance he could reverse his retirement as he refused to rule out making a return to the F1 grid in the future. 

Asked in an interview with Sky F1 if he would ever come back to the sport, Vettel told Martin Brundle: “I can’t say no, because you don’t know.

“I think it's something that if you asked all of them, probably some of them would have said, ‘No’, and some of them, ‘I don’t know’, but in the end all of them came back, so I can’t exclude it.

“It probably will depend much on when, and obviously it’s not endless, because at 36 it’s not like, ‘Yeah, in 10 years’ time, maybe I think about it’, then time has passed.

“It will depend on the challenge, whatever, but it’s not in my head right now. I’m enjoying the sort of outlook of the challenge of what to do next."