DAYTONA BEACH, Florida: The notorious tune “Du du du duh ... Max Verstappen ...” is likely loathed by every racing driver other than the reigning four-time Formula 1 champion.

But if many of those same drivers had their way, the Dutchman would be in Daytona this weekend racing the Rolex 24 and the song that honors his dominance would be blared throughout the infield during his driving stints.

The race that begins Saturday at Daytona International Speedway features 235 of the best drivers in the world representing 31 countries, and while that count includes former F1 drivers, none are currently active in the global series. Kevin Magnussen, who in December closed his 10-year F1 career for good, has the most recent series experience out of the 14 former F1 drivers entered.

He’s joined in Daytona by former Haas F1 teammates Romain Grosjean and Pietro Fittipaldi, Daniil Kvyat, Kamui Kobayashi, Felipe Nasr, Felipe Massa, Sebastien Bourdais, Paul Di Resta, Will Stevens, Brendon Hartley, Jack Aitken, Gianmaria Bruni and Pascal Wehrlein. Current F1 reserve drivers Felipe Drugovich and Frederik Vesti, and Ferrari development driver Arthur Leclerc are also entered.

The field, simply put, is stacked. But when Australian V8 Supercars champion and NASCAR Cup Series rookie Shane van Gisbergen was asked what driver is missing from the race, his answer was a single name: “Max.”

No one even had to ask which Max he was referring to as he echoed the sentiment of Ben Keating, a co-driver on van Gisbergen’s team.

“I’d like to see Max Verstappen come out here and play around with us,” Keating said.

Van Gisbergen said he’d been messaging with Verstappen during Rolex preparation and, “I think he’d be good here.”

Verstappen drove an Acura sports car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in November ahead of the F1 race there, and has previously indicated he’d someday like to move to endurance racing. He’s an avid SIM racer and the live streams of his sessions draw hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Magnussen predicted Verstappen will eventually make his way to Daytona, in part because “I don’t see him continuing 10 years in F1.”

“He’s a proper racer, so he would do Daytona. Based on all the SIM racing he does and he already has a GT team,” Magnussen added.

Verstappen has previously said his family is planning to form a two-car GT3 team that could compete in series like the GT World Challenge (GTWC) and the idea came from his SIM racing, from 2025 onwards.

“The first step is our own GT3 team and then we’ll see where we end up,” Verstappen previously told Dutch magazine Formule 1. “It would be nice to be able to grow to the highest level in endurance racing.”

JEDDAH: Team Brady on Friday secured pole position in the 2025 UIM E1 World Championship presented by PIF, the world’s first all-electric race boat series, which is taking place in Jeddah.
The 2024 Champions of the Water reigned supreme on the Red Sea, as the Tom Brady-backed team topped a breathless qualifying session.
The team’s Emma Kimilainen proved the fastest pilot in qualifying following a day of intense competition to put her team in the driving seat at the E1 Jeddah GP.
Her side overcame fierce competition from Team AlUla, championed by LeBron James, in second place and Aoki Racing Team in third.
Kimilainen said: “As reigning champions the pressure was always going to be on us. But as Tom (Brady) tells us, we should embrace it, and that’s exactly what we did today.”
E1 newcomers Team AlUla, competing for the first time after entering the championship this week, proved to be the surprise package thanks to a blistering qualifying time trial by their Canadian pilot Rusty Wyatt.
The result paved the way for a gripping race day on Saturday with the championship’s nine teams looking to establish an early lead to take the fight to Team Brady.
Friday marked the championship’s return to Jeddah, the location for E1’s first-ever race.