Up Next
Kevin Magnussen’s likely Formula 1 exit after losing his Haas drive is an ill-fated twist for a driver who feels “ready for a bigger team and a faster car”.
Magnussen and team-mate of four years Romain Grosjean are being replaced at Haas for 2021 as the team seeks extra investment that can be unlocked by fielding younger drivers, thought to be privately-financed Nikita Mazepin and Ferrari protege Mick Schumacher.
The remaining vacancies on next year’s grid are almost certainly out of Magnussen’s reach, a fact he has openly admitted, which means the 28-year-old Dane is set to shift onto the sidelines if not leave F1 for good.
Magnussen says F1 has taught him to “never say never” so he will hope for an unexpected reprieve.
But he has ruled out taking a sabbatical and trying to return in 2022, because he believes he is at a stage where he needs “take the next step” or look elsewhere.
“I had a sabbatical in ’15, and that wasn’t very enjoyable,” said Magnussen, referring to his year as McLaren’s reserve after his rookie season, when asked by The Race about taking a year out.
“I feel like I’m sort of ready to take the next step – at the same time as I find myself probably on the sidelines” :: Kevin Magnussen
“I was pretty lucky to get a chance to come back after that. So, I don’t think a sabbatical is preferred in any way.
“I want to be racing, I’m a racer and I really miss going racing to win. I couldn’t see myself on the sidelines for a whole year.
“At this point, I’m keeping my options open and I’m speaking to all sorts of different teams and people. Who knows what can happen in F1, I’ve learned over the years that you should never say never, and should always keep your doors open.
“I feel like I have more to give in F1, I’m still improving as a driver and over the last years with Haas especially I’ve grown a lot as a driver.
“With Romain, we’ve been able to push each other and I’ve learned a huge amount from him as well.
“I feel like I’m sort of ready to take the next step as well – at the same time as I find myself probably on the sidelines. But we’ll see.”
Magnussen scored a podium on his first F1 start in Australia 2014, but McLaren replaced him with Fernando Alonso for the following season.
The subsequent enforced sabbatical included a scuppered IndyCar opportunity but he returned to the F1 grid in 2016 with the revived works Renault team.
Unfortunately, Renault’s first year back was poor as it repurchased the ailing Enstone set-up it had sold to Lotus, and Magnussen lasted one season before moving to Haas.
He enjoyed his best season in F1 with the American team in 2018 (pictured below), but Haas’s slump over the last two years brought more lows than highs.
Nonetheless, Magnussen believes the experience has been invaluable, and that it leads to his feeling he is ready for the “next step”.
“I think it’s just you continue to get more and more experience and I feel over the years I’ve gained some pretty valuable experience with some big teams and a small team, a long time with a brand new team, with all its challenges that follow with that,” Magnussen said when asked to elaborate on his initial comments.
“And also I’ve now got eight years of Formula 1 experience, since 2013 as a test driver, six seasons as a race driver and another stint as a test driver in 2015.
“I just feel like I’ve got to a point now where I feel very experienced and I feel way different going racing now.
“The first two years I think he still had the symptoms post being fired twice. He was always a little bit on edge but he calmed down a lot” :: Guenther Steiner
“I feel way more balanced in my mind and sort of just content about the job whenever I go to a new track or different conditions. I just feel more comfortable. And that’s just what comes with experience.
“So, that’s why I say I feel like I’m in a way ready to step up and take on the challenge of a bigger team and a faster car. But at the same time I’m sort of in limbo with my future.”
An F1 team weighing Magnussen as an option will view him in a different light to the driver who beat Stoffel Vandoorne to the Formula Renault 3.5 title in 2013.
He has had the odd flash of controversy through his career, from a much-publicised confrontation with Nico Hulkenberg in Hungary in 2017 to radio outbursts and team-mate clashes at Haas.
But Haas believes Magnussen is a more rounded driver now than when he joined and team boss Guenther Steiner says he is “absolutely” deserving of a seat in F1, even though Steiner was not in a position to keep him in one.
“He’s good enough, it’s just at the moment it’s tough to find a seat,” said Steiner.
“But I think he’s shown over the last four years with us that he has the quality, he has the talent. He just needs to find somewhere.
“He matured a lot, I would say. I’m very complimentary on that one to him.
“The first two years I think he still had the symptoms post being fired twice from a team. He was always a little bit on edge but he calmed down a lot, he’s much more mature.
“It comes also with age that you get much more mature obviously. As a race driver he’s much more calm, if there is something he doesn’t fall out of balance.”
Haas’s position at the back of the F1 grid, fighting for scraps in 2020, has not allowed Magnussen to show that very often.
But combative first laps and an extremely well-judged drive into the points in Hungary lend support to the argument he is a better driver than ever and capable of much more than Haas has been able to offer in the last two years.
“I got on the podium in my first race in Formula 1 [pictured above], that’s because I had the speed back then,” said Magnussen.
“My speed has improved a little bit but that’s not what improves the most, it’s more being ready for all sorts of different situations and getting the most out of the car and the set-up, knowing what you want from the car, strategy-wise being ready for those things with all the experience that you gain over the years.
“So, when I think back to that first race, how inexperienced I was, and I got on the podium and finished second in my first race.
“If I was in that situation now…I’m a way better driver now. So I feel if I got the right car, which I had in that race, it would be very fun.”
