F1 Daily: Verstappen's Le Mans Plans, the Younger Raikkonen, and More

There are just a couple of days left before the F1 grid officially gets their wheels on the asphalt of the new Madring Circuit. It has a very tricky layout, with drivers like Carlos Sainz Jr saying that the weekend will be fun but intense. 

But off the track, we got several interesting developments as well. And speaking of developments, let's start with a recent Red Bull signing. 

A Raikkonen made waves yesterday, and it's not the legendary Kimi. 

Robin Raikkonen has officially signed with the Red Bull Junior Team's driver-development program. The 11-year-old son of former F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen will be joining an elite program that has produced World Champions like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

Robin, nicknamed "Ace", has been racing karts internationally and has already produced some eye-catching performances. One example came in the Rotax Grand Finals, where he went from 22nd on the grid to fifth after penalties were applied, making a huge number of positions during the race itself.

Red Bull driver and four-time World Champion Max Verstappen revealed that he has talked to Fernando Alonso about competing together at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The plan would still depend on overlaps in their schedules, but there's a real opportunity here. 

Alonso has already won two Le Mans championships with Toyota in 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile, Verstappen made his endurance racing debut at the 2025 Nürburgring Endurance Series. 

The new Madring track should be one of the "most difficult and intense" circuits this season, at least according to Williams driver Carlos Sainz Jr. He described it as something close to street circuits like Jeddah and Baku. 

Born in Madrid, Sainz has always been closely involved in helping bring Formula One to his home city.

Audi reportedly has every intention to follow through on its appeal of the stewards' decision not to hand a penalty to Racing Bulls' Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver didn't properly line up in his grid box at the race restart at Monza, forcing race director Rui Marques to call an extra formation lap.

To the surprise of everybody, the stewards didn't penalize Tsunoda for the restart infringement. The Japanese driver finished 10th, scoring one point for the Racing Bulls. After the race, Audi announced their intent to appeal the decision, especially with both of their drivers finishing right behind Tsunoda.

Finally, the Monaco saga was put to rest, with the FIA reinstating Pierre Gasly's penalties, handing the third-place podium finish back to Red Bull's Isack Hadjar. Alpine de facto team principal Flavio Briatore was obviously unhappy, getting to the point of accusing one of the judges of McLaren bias. 

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella defended his camp and suggested changes to the Right of Review system.