Rolex 24 at Daytona

Chaos as Cadillac F1 signing among drivers stuck behind SIX HOUR safety car

Chris Deeley Sunday 25 January 2026 13:30

Photo: © IMAGO

A general reminder to everyone out there: no matter how bad you think things are, they can always be worse.

Think F1's a little bit heavy on the weather delays? Reckon they roll around behind the safety car a bit too long? Let us introduce you to this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona, where a whole fleet of endurance cars were stuck chilling out under yellow flags, behind the pace car, for more than six and a half hours.

A mass of fog drifted over the Florida track a little after midnight, reducing visibility to a point that it was clearly unsafe to race, especially considering the pace disparity between cars of different classes.

At time of writing, the fog has burned off just enough in the dawn sunlight to get going again, after more than a quarter of this 24 hour race has been run behind the safety car.

F1 stars past and future at Daytona

There were, weirdly, still lead changes behind the safety car – because teams had to pit to keep their cars running, and because no one driver can be in the cockpit for more than four hours in a six-hour period.

A whole host of F1 alums are taking part in the race, including Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant and Romain Grosjean, while there are also 12 IndyCar championships in the field.

One of the most intriguing drivers in the race from an F1 perspective, though, has never raced in the sport. That man is Colton Herta, a nine-time IndyCar race winner who ditched the American series to come over and race in F2 in 2026 and serve as Cadillac's test driver, with a view to earning the superlicense points to move up to F1 in 2027 or beyond.

One small upside to the farcical non-racing that took place, though? A hypercar traversing the banking of the World Center of Racing through the fog looks really, really cool.

Without a UK broadcaster, the entire race is being shown live on IMSA's YouTube channel.