Kevin Magnussen

The son of former McLaren Formula One driver Jan Magnussen makes his Formula One debut in the 2014 season. He started his racing career in karting and quickly moved onto more powerful single seaters.
After early success in Danish Formula Ford he was soon competing and winning in Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula 3 before competing in the Formula Renualt 3.5 series and winning the championship in his second year.

As a product of the same driver development program that brought us Lewis Hamilton as well as a strong racing pedigree, Magnussen has become accustomed to winning at all levels of the junior motorsport ranks and will want to continue his success when he makes his debut in March.

 

[RasputinLives]

Magnussen: I'd love to race for Haas - AUTOSPORT

I'd love to drive for Haas says KMag. and then gives a timely reminder of how experienced a driver he is.

Thats call a media slam dunk right?

 

[Il_leone]

I think given a choice of Haas or Manor it is an easier choice to make unless Manor turn out a really great car and surprise everyone

 

[Il_leone]

Anyone know what livery Haas will run in?

 

[soccerman17]

Most likely red and black

 

[Il_leone]

I wonder if that may include sponsorship from Lego

 

[RasputinLives]

Now the dipstick has broken his hand falling off a motorbike! Massive own goal at negotiation time Kev.

 

[Il_leone]

well not a smart move but since no testing is allowed . Its all based on race simulator work

 

[RasputinLives]

Looks like KMag is on his way out of Mclaren:

No new McLaren deal for Magnussen - PlanetF1

With two world champions in race seats and three junior champions in the youth development system there one of them was always going to have to go at somepoint. With them choosing to keep Button on for at least another year I did think it might be the end of Magnusens time with Mclaren. It is a shame because I actually think he did a pretty decent job in his first year with the team in a very difficult car.

There is talk of Enstone, Manor and Haas but I don't think he's a front runner for any of those. I think he had expected Button to go at the end of year and for him to come back in. He is quick but when you tie yourself to one team it leaves you with few options when it doesn't work out.

I expect to see him turn up in Indy Car or Formula E over the next year.

 

[Il_leone]

He did well in a difficult car but Button who many will think is over the hill still managed to come out on top and score twice as many points as him.

Its a shame his career has been halted because of what is happening with Mclaren. If Mclaren were competitive then things might be different.

Not sure if he can get more Danish sponsors to help stay in F1?

 

[F1Brits_90]

Yeah big shame for magnussen, but thats the problem with mclaren when you dont have a junior team you have quality drivers In KMag & vandoorne but nowhere to go especially when Honda wanted & allegedly pay part/all of alonso salary.

But magnussen is 50/50 as on 1 hand its bad luck because button prior relationship with honda means he was always going to have a upper hand between the two but then also cant complain in 2014 button had 126 pts KMag 55 & JB's 4th in Japan just proved why they wouldve been stupid to lose his experience

I wouldnt be surprised if magnussen ended up in a joint Indycar Le Mans campaign next yr

 

[FB]

Class from his Ronness, sacking KMag by e-mail.

Dennis could have shown more class - Magnussen - F1i.com

 

[Il_leone]

Its not the first time its happened to a driver - It looks like Ron has taken a leaf out of Flavio's book and not being man enough to tell the driver in person.

I remember Johnny Herbert was replaced at Benetton after he found out on CEEFAX they had signed Berger !

Ron is just full of , a year before he was talking about how instrumental he was in getting K Mag in F1 and it appears he has very little control of driver selection and very little class in driver management.

For a man who prides on perfection and professionalism well certainly cowardly done in the book of management

K Mag will feel angry at how things are done but he should think that he can make a name of himself without Ron's interference anymore

Its not like Ron has a great history with his junior drivers if I am honest. Even Hamilton is not complimentary of Ron anymore

That thing about not meeting targets - well how is suppose to if you don't communicate with them what they expect him to do when he is on the sidelines apart from simulator testing

 

[FB]

KMag could do a lot worse than have a go at WEC. He dad had 4 class wins at Le Mans and I'm sure one of the top teams in LMP1 or 2 wouldn't mind having him on their team.

 

[Il_leone]

I think K Mag should go and try and win Le Mans unless he can get himself a top seat in Indycar and win in his rookie season like a certain Juan Pable Montoya

 

[Kewee]

Don't think Indycar is as easy as your making it sound, or WEC as far as that goes. I think he'd do very well but they're both hard fought series and he'd be a rookie in either of them regardless of which he chose.

 

[Il_leone]

I think that is the only he will get another crack at F1 again am afraid

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

Magnussen might struggle in the oval events I guess, but the IndyCar field can't be that impressive if a 40 year old Montoya can finish his rookie season tied on points with the series champion. Even at his peak back in the 2000's Montoya was hardly F1's finest; lets not forget how badly he was beaten by Raikkonen, and recent results are raising pretty significant questions as to just how good Raikkonen actually was.

 

[Kewee]

Spinodontosaurus ..... The difference between F1 and Indycar is huge. In F1 much of the success depends on who plays the political game more effectively, a sad fact but true, which was something Montoya hated and couldn't be bothered with. In IRL they're race car drivers who win on the track in equal cars due to it being a heavily regulated series. I know what I'd sooner watch. You'll never see a Formula One race finish with the top ten separated by less than a couple of seconds, sometimes even closer. Thats the beauty of ovals, slipstreaming heaven. Their road racing is top draw too. A series doesn't need to use cutting edge technology to provide great racing.

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

I'm struggling to think of a way that Montoya's hatred for the politics of F1 contributed to him scoring just 59% of Raikkonen's points over their time together as team mates. That is (significantly) worse than the 73% that Coulthard managed and it isn't as if Raikkonen was deeply invested in the political side of the sport either.

I'm not talking about the quality of the racing, I'm talking about the quality of the drivers.

 

[RasputinLives]

Montoya had lost interest in F1 about three races into his Mclaren career and didn't compete for a complete season either year. He was not a good fit with the team.

Montoya was the only one to really get near Schumacher in the early 00's and but for some politics and an inability to keep his cool would have been world champ in 2003.

It's easy to look back on the stats and say he didn't cut it but there was a huge buzz around Montoya when he showed up in F1 and he was rated as top notch by pretty much everyone.