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.

 

[Plutus]

Kevin Magnussen certainly drove a good first race in Formula 1. I agree with Mephistopheles that P2 was not his true positioning but he utilised the cars potential to finish second unlike other drivers such as Bottas.

Was it a great quali and race for a rookie? Yes it bloody well was. Credit where it's due please.

We should distinguish. What is expected of the rookie Magnussen. Is he expected to be the Sakon Yamamoto type or the Lewis Hamilton type?
It is expected of him to drive a clean race and deal with pressure. Of course, he will be given time and room for errors but not too much. He is in a team with high ambitions (at least I hope they have high ambitions) which must be fulfilled irrespective of the fact that he is a rookie.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah he only came P2 in his first race in a brand new formula which itself had a brand new set of rules whilst he was in a car that no one really knew would react or last competing against drivers that had so much more experience.

Bloody average start.

 

[teabagyokel]

Plutus - As I recall, Lewis Hamilton finished 3rd behind his team-mate on debut in Australia.

I really don't know what he could have done more to convince.

 

[Slyboogy]

Think he's surpassed Sakon Yamamoto before he even arrived into F1.

 

[Titch]

Explain Plutus . Why is P2 not his true position? I am really interested in your justification of that statement.

 

[Hamberg]

We should distinguish. What is expected of the rookie Magnussen.

I thought I explained that fairly well and he surpassed any expectation of any driver other than those in a Mercedes-gp car didn't he? Let alone a rookie.

What more could he have done? I really need to know why exactly he didn't thoroughly deserve his place.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Because it is not even McLarens true position in the pecking order as it stands I would say at the moment it goes.

1. Mercedes
2. Williams
3. Red Bull

and then McLaren and Ferrari about the same, but this could all change by the next race...

 

[Titch]

Why ? Those were not the results of the race, so why would you decide that the true position, or the pecking order ,was some unproved theory, decided by.. well who did decide your pecking order? Surely pecking orders go on results, don't they?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Hamberg Titch nobody has suggested he didn't deserve his place I have heard every single one of the people who are applauding him after only one not so straight forward race use the "If's" and "Buts" arguments in the past so stop trying to act all self righteous and indignant now...

I think he is a very nice young man...

 

[teabagyokel]

his true position was probably around 7th or 8th or lower.

Semantically, you didn't actually use those words.

If McLaren aren't the second best team, then for a driver to finish 2nd is particularly commendable, is it not?

 

[Hamberg]

Lets face it, it wasn't a clean cut second position was it? quali was wet and caught out drivers that would have probably started ahead of him he started 4th and finished second well done, but he didn't overtake anyone for that position Lewis would have been ahead and Danny boy was disqualified Button was faster all weekend and got caught out by yellow flags in quali Bottas would have beaten him and Massa if he hadn't been taken out would have probably beaten him, his true position was probably around 7th or 8th or lower.

I agree with Mephistopheles that P2 was not his true positioning

Correct, nobody had suggested he didn't deserve his place, you've stated it.

That's the most absurd list of ifs and buts I've heard. Most of the ifs and buts people have previously suggested are about one driver or situation, not half the field as in this case... If it wasn't for Hamilton, or Bottas, or Massa, or Kimi ruining Buttons qualifying [to quote barichello] "blah, blah, blah"...

Each of these drivers fucked up or had a fuck up whether it be through poor qualifying, mistakes in the race or equipment failing. Magnusson didn't. What he did was the best possible job with his equipment and luck in the race, even after nearly dropping it but recovering brilliantly in the first few seconds.

 

[Titch]

Self righteous, no. Indignant, yes. One race, and unproven, yes. But why put him down for those reasons. Surely his achievement in the dull world of todays F1, is cause for some sort of approbation?
How do you know he's a very nice young man? He may be absolutely awful.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Correct, nobody had suggested he didn't deserve his place, you've stated it.

That's the most absurd list of ifs and buts I've heard. Most of the ifs and buts people have previously suggested are about one driver or situation,

Really? I must have been a member of and reading a different forum for the last couple of years then...

A friend of mine started weight lifting and after about a month he entered a competition and when I asked him how he got on he said he had achieved second position I was absolutely amazed and in awe of his achievement and then he told me that there was only him and the bloke that came first who had bothered to turn up...

 

[Hamberg]

Really? I must have been a member of and reading a different forum for the last couple of years then...

I guess, probably Muzz

 

[RasputinLives]

Mephistopheles you can only beat what os in front of you. You can theorise that KMag should have been beaten by these other guys but can you tell me 100% that he would have been? No. Therefore its all conjecture.

Approach this from a scientific point of view and the only actual facts you have is that he was second. Therefore that was his true position.

Now I know that you agree with me on the fact that the race is where it counts in F1 and its about bringing it home over the line. I've heard you say before (and I've agreed with you) that there is no point be amazingly quick over one lap on a Saturday if you dpn't get a result. Your Williams, Mercs and Red Bulls did not bring it home on Sunday therefore they were not better than the Mclaren combination. You can argue they are quicker but the Pastor Maldonado is quite quick sometimes.

The only thing that counts in F1 are results. Kmag and Mclaren brought it home. All this if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle stuff ain't worth a jot.

So good job Mclaren lets see if you can keep it up and if the others (who have won diddly so far apart from topping some lap times charts) can catch you.

 

[Brogan]

If Magnussen's "true" position was "7th or 8th or lower", what was Button's?

 

[teabagyokel]

Mephistopheles - But it wasn't just him and Rosberg, was it? He came second in an actual race against actual opponents, including two World Champions in an equivalent Ferrari and one World Champion in the same machinery.

There is no reason to denigrate this performance and I'm baffled that it has been criticised.

 

[Mephistopheles]

If Magnussen's "true" position was "7th or 8th or lower", what was Button's?

Somewhere behind Kev's.. And teabagyokel I have stated time and time again that I am not criticizing KMags performance, but you just don't seem to listen, you would rather just shoot me down as being some kind of fan boy..

I do not consider Buttons 3rd position a true reflection of the performance of the McLaren either as I have stated on other threads Button lucked in with the safety car and then he pitted first and got the undercut and Alonso stayed out one lap too long which also helped his race Jenson was also helped by all the things that KMag was helped by the disqualification Lewis and Vettel's DNF's and whatever.

Now if I can state these things about my sweetheart Jens which are true and accurate why can't I state the same things about his team mate without being shouted down at every turn?

 

[Hamberg]

Because Kmag pretty much kept position, a frickin' decent position obtained through frickin' decent qualifying?

He didn't luck onto the podium, he earned it. That's the difference.

 

[Mephistopheles]

But he did luck into it, with Hamilton's reliability problems and Bottas's crash and maybe even Vettels problems as well, am I speaking fucking Klingon here or something??

Even if you ignore Vettel and Bottas as they started behind him you cannot ignore Hamilton's exclusion due to no fault of his own or the arrogance of Red Bull thinking they knew best if they had have complied with the stewards Danny boy would never have been disqualified, like you said KMag held position and that is all in essence as Plutus said he did exactly what was expected of him nothing more nothing less...

I'm off to check the language settings on my keyboard to see if I haven't accidentally set it to gibberish....