Schumacher sat on the sidelines this year after losing his Haas F1 seat at the end of 2022, taking up a role as Mercedes reserve driver instead.
In 2024 the German will dovetail those duties with a full WEC campaign with Alpine's hypercar team, which was officially announced on Wednesday.
Schumacher revealed he had consulted his close friend and mentor Vettel about his next steps.
"I've briefly spoken with Sebastian about it," Schumacher said on Thursday in Abu Dhabi. "It has been a factor that I think he knows so much about motorsport, but it was also a very clear point for me to go and ask him about his opinion."
Schumacher said sitting out the 2023 season was "very tough", so it was a priority for him to find a competitive seat and stay race fit.
"Very important," he replied when asked how crucial it was for him to go racing again. "Having to sit out the whole year has been tough. And I'm just excited to be back in the car and go race and have a new challenge.
"I'm a racing driver. I hadn't been out of racing 14 years previous to this, so it was definitely a clear choice and a clear direction that I wanted to be racing."
Source: Autosport