The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is a legendary sports and GT car race but such is its stature, over the years, that many great Formula 1 drivers have raced the epic event that annually kickstarts the new international racing year.
In their preview package, IMSA recalls how just five years ago, two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso was part of Wayne Taylor Racing’s Rolex 24 winning team. Similarly, Kamui Kobayashi, best known as a three-time WEC World Champion, also started 75 F1 races between 2009 and 2014, including a podium finish in his home race, the Japanese Grand Prix.
A year earlier, Alonso was part of the Daytona 24 Hours lineup for now full-time IMSA competitor United Autosports that included current McLaren hotshot Lando Norris.
Almost 200 drivers who have raced in Formula 1 have also competed in the Rolex 24. The list includes 36 F1 race winners and six F1 World Champions. Apart from the abovementioned Alonso, also Jenson Button, Jack Brabham, Phil Hill, Denis Hulme and Mario Andretti.
Button, the 2009 F1 World Champion with Brawn GP, will this year compete with Wayne Taylor Racing driving the Andretti No. 40 Acura ARX-06 in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class.
Ten other former F1 drivers are also entered in this year’s Rolex 24, they are: Jack Aitken, Sebastien Bourdais, Gianmaria Bruni, Paul di Resta, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean, Brendon Hartley, Felipe Massa, Felipe Nasr and Alexander Rossi.
USA Racing legend Mario Andretti can claim a victory in at Daytona. In 1972 – the year he triumphed with Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari 312PB prototype – the event was reduced from 24 hours to six due to a one-year anomaly in global motorsport regulations at the time.
Daytona 24 Hour winner Mario Andretti is regarded as the most versatile race driver of all time
In addition to his 12 Grand Prix victories and the 1978 F1 world title for Lotus, Andretti won 52 Indycar and CART races and Indycar (CART) four championships, took victory in NASCAR's 1967 Daytona 500. He broke on to the international racing scene as part of Ford's famous Le Mans effort in 1966.
While most Americans think of Andretti as an Indy car driver, racing’s international fanbase looks at him through the prism of Formula 1 and sports cars. The man himself doesn’t care – he wanted to do it all!
Andretti said of his unique achievements: “I’m personally glad that I had that opportunity as part of my career, and there are a lot of reasons why that doesn’t happen as often anymore. The bottom line is that I was inspired by A.J. Foyt, by Dan Gurney, by people like that who would move around and do other things. I loved my driving so much that I just wanted to be driving. I didn’t look forward to a weekend off.
“I’d go from a Formula 1 race in Argentina to USAC in Du Quoin, Illinois,” he marveled. “From a 1,000-kilometer sports car race at Monza to the Hoosier Hundred … you know, from Formula 1 to a dirt car. How opposite is that? And I used to love that opportunity. I wouldn’t trade that part of my career for anything, quite honestly. That was awesome.”
Rolex 24 provides the rare occasion where the world’s best race drivers come together
Four of the current F1 drivers have raced at the Daytona 24 Hours. Alonso and his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll, the aforementioned Norris and Kevin Magnussen of the Haas F1 team. Magnussen’s father, a regular at the race in Florida, USA, was also an F1 driver.
Furthermore, the fact that every major racing series from Formula 1 to IndyCar to NASCAR skout about the involvement of their drivers in the Rolex 24 is testimony to the level of prestige the annual sports car endurance race at Daytona International Speedway holds within the worldwide racing community.
The IMSA report adds: "Endurance sports car racing has traditionally functioned as a common denominator for drivers who otherwise specialize in other forms of racing around the world. Top-tier sports car events, like the Rolex 24, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans represent the rare occasion where the world’s best racers come together."
Final word to The Maestro, Mario: “The top drivers of any era would deal with what is thrown at them and would be at the front. There is no reason Juan Manuel Fangio or Stirling Moss wouldn’t have adapted to modern technology and all that.
"Or put a guy like Verstappen or Michael Schumacher or Ayrton Senna in a Mercedes W196 or a Ferrari of that era and he would deal with that. The human element adapts to whatever is thrown at them and special talent will always rise to the top," reckoned Andretti, who should know!
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