Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that his Red Bull team blocked him taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year, as they believed his focus should be on Formula 1.
In contrast, fellow F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg was granted permission by his team, Force India, to take part. The German partnered Porsche and went on to win the race alongside Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber.
That won't be possible this season as the European Grand Prix based in Azerbaijan clashes with the historic endurance race.
Despite missing out, Ricciardo says it isn't the end of the world, and hopes to take part in the not too distant future.
"Le Mans would be cool," he told Auto Action. "To be honest, I wanted to do it last year," said the 26-year-old.
"Obviously Hülkenberg went and did it and won. So that can happen. I would love to have done it.
"There was maybe some opportunities to do it last year, but it was a bit too much with everything going on and the team preferred me to just focus on F1. It makes sense for now," he added.
"I guess the beauty of Le Mans is it can happen 10 years from now. It doesn’t need to be done today."
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