Happy new year to all our readers! Welcome to the first RaceFans round-up of 2026.
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McLaren Racing chief will stay until he’s at least 69 years old! (Virgin Radio)
‘Manssour Ojjeh and Sheikh Mohammed called and (said) actually we want you to come in and run McLaren Racing now. And I was like, that’s a different programme ’cause I love the racing. So the Formula 1 opportunity was amazing, but it was more of what I was already been doing, which is commercial, but on a much larger stage, where I felt the McLaren opportunity had all the commercial excitement, ’cause I love the commercial side of the business, but when the lights go out, Bernie (Ecclestone) used to go home. I want to be on pit wall when the lights go out. I want to be in the race. And I’ve always loved McLaren, it’s always been my favourite team.’
‘Croft, though, insists he has no plans to go anywhere: ‘I’ll be a part of it for many more years to come – we’re only just getting going.”
Date set for Schumacher’s first oval test (Racer)
‘The new Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar Series driver is set to explore the 1.5-mile Miami-Homestead Speedway facility in Florida with the number 75 RLL Honda on February 4th, days prior to a mass gathering of teams and drivers at the Sebring International Raceway road course on February 9th-10th.’
Ella Lloyd: The former showjumper chasing F1 history (The Telegraph)
‘It probably falls under “sporting”, but I won the 148 Bronze League in showjumping when I was 19 in Wales. I eventually prioritised motor racing over showjumping in 2022, as that’s where my true passion lies.’
How McLaren’s F1 team accidentally helped invent torque vectoring (Motor 1)
‘The technology disappeared from F1, but the concept was impossible to ignore. And while it was being experimented with in different forms of motorsport at a similar time as well as a small number of road cars, McLaren’s demonstration proved how powerful wheel-by-wheel braking control could be.’
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to dsob and Michael Hu!
Born on this day in 1945: Future Le Mans 24 Hours winner and F1 championship runner-up Jacky Ickx
Born on this day in 1963: Jean-Marc Gounon, who started nine grands prix for Minardi and Simtek
Born on this day in 1981: Zsolt Baumgartner, the only Hungarian driver ever to race in Formula 1