F1 champion Max Verstappen the brightest star missing from stacked field at Rolex 24 of Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — 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."