Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
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The F1 team bosses* choose their top 10 drivers of 2025 (F1)
Verstappen won the annual survey ahead of Norris, Piastri, Russell, Alonso, Sainz, Leclerc, Bearman, Hadjar and Hulkenberg. Hamilton, seventh last year, does not feature.
*Ferrari and Red Bull did not participate
What Were McLaren Thinking? (Midweek F1)
Former Top Gear producer Andy Wilman on Kimi Raikkonen’s appearance on the programme in 2012: ‘It was when he came back with Lotus and we were all like, oh, we are not worthy, you’re here, you’re here. And I went down to see the guy with the timer, Nick Dalton had the watch out. Let’s see what he’s doing. How’s he doing? He went ‘not great’. So he goes into his motorhome and he’s like ‘I’ve done enough laps now’. He wasn’t unfriendly, but he’s just like ‘it’s a rainy day’. And I go into the motorhome after him because it’s starting to dry out. It’s like, never going to be a dry track, but it’s lessening. I’ve gone in a bit late because he’s in the La-Z-Boy chair and it’s warm, and he’s fully stretched out like Joey from Friends. And I went, Kimi, you know, it’s drying out now. I can’t tell you your time, but it wasn’t brilliant and we know you could go faster. And he went, ‘no I can’t’. And we were like, no Kimi, it really is drying out, if you look out of the window, you’ll see it’s definitely getting drier. And he, with hugely bad grace, upped himself to the window and he was like ‘no, it isn’t’ and laid down again. So I kind of lost it with him a bit and bollocked him, like ‘there’s so many people here waiting to see you make a comeback and that’ll be on you if you don’t do something’. Then I thought ‘what have I done?’ And then he got out and he went and did a couple more laps and went a bit faster. But that was the day I told Kimi off.’
Andretti Global preparing for team leadership change (Racer)
‘COO Rob Edwards, who arrived in 2015 to run Andretti’s IndyCar and Indy Nxt programs after serving as team manager of the outfit known today as Arrow McLaren, will hand the leadership baton to ex-Team Penske managing director Ron Ruzewski.’
Toyota not ruling out Barnicoat (or) Fenestraz for 2027 chances (Sportscar 365)
‘Within the Toyota family, there are many good drivers like Ben and Sacha, and this rookie test opportunity is always a nice one to take.’
Could anyone have beaten Fornaroli to the 2025 F2 title? (Formula Scout)
‘The fastest driver in the field came 11th in the standings. And he knew he was fastest.’
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Journeyer, NAZ3012, Rick and Liam Stroud!
Born today in 1942: Guy Edwards, who started 11 F1 races in the seventies and later became a sponsorship consultant for Lotus.
Born today in 1956: Francois Hesnault, the last driver to start a race as a third entrant for a team, driving a year-old Renault at the 1985 German Grand Prix, having been dropped by Brabham earlier in the year