Sebastian Vettel returns to Italy for Mattia Binotto meeting and simulator work for the Japanese GP. Sebastian Vettel spent the day in Maranello.

Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel visited the Italian side’s factory on Tuesday following his retirement from the Russian Grand Prix.

The four-times world champion, who retired from Sunday’s race at Sochi after ignoring an order to let team mate Charles Leclerc overtake him, met with team principal Mattia Binotto at the team’s factory in Maranello. A short statement from Ferrari described the meeting as “positive and constructive”:

“Sebastian Vettel spent the day in Maranello today, preparing in the simulator for the Japanese Grand Prix, which takes place at Suzuka circuit on Sunday 13 October. Busy day. Sebastian started the day with a positive and constructive meeting with Team Principal Mattia Binotto before joining the engineers. In the afternoon, it was time to get in the simulator cockpit for a session assessing the SF90 running in different track conditions. Favourite track. The Japanese circuit, the only one on the calendar to feature a figure of eight, is one of Vettel’s favourites and he has won at Suzuka four times, but not yet with Scuderia Ferrari.”

Sebastian Vettel also took the opportunity to test with the Tony Kart team at the Lonato circuit, 140km away from his team’s base, on Monday.

“I was coming here anyway, it’s a shame I only make it so rarely but hopefully I can make it a bit more often,” he said in an interview for the team’s YouTube channel – “I would like to do more but obviously time, we have a lot of races as well but let’s see, maybe I need better organisation and come back to watch.”