KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
Fast, fearless, more professional than you might think, and now revelling in a team environment that suits his politics-free outlook, Kevin Magnussen is becoming the F1 driver he always should have been
How the Danish driver has been rehabilitated at Haas
nurtured through the junior single-seater ranks, a podium finisher on his grand prix debut, and a driver the team considered definitively faster than 2009 world champion Jenson Button. But one nevertheless cast aside to make way for Fernando Alonso’s return at the end of 2014. It was the first of several false starts in an F1 career that is only now living up to its true potential.
Feeling frustrated and let down, his confidence dented, Magnussen was moved on after a season spent in the ‘reserve driver’ graveyard, so Mclaren’s new next big thing – Stoffel Vandoorne – could be groomed to become Alonso’s team-mate. Magnussen bounced out of Woking and into Enstone for a campaign with the reformed Renault works team. But that proved a short-lived misstep, as Magnussen struggled to stand out in a difficult car against a team-mate – Jolyon Palmer – that F1 didn’t rate. Points of comparison count for a lot, remember, in a world ruled by perception.
Magnussen could have stayed on at Renault for 2017, but found Nico Hülkenberg’s arrival on a multi-year deal unsettling when he himself had been offered only a one-year ticket. Those familiar warning signs were surfacing again: the feeling that certain elements inside the team didn’t fully believe in his abilities and weren’t prepared to back him properly.
Bouncing out of two big teams in three years is not good for any F1 driver’s reputation. K-mag needed rehab for his ailing grand prix career, and it appears he has finally found that salvation at Haas. Now into his second season with the American team, Magnussen is performing consistently well compared with his highly rated (if erratic) team-mate Romain Grosjean, and is starting to show the sort of promise that so enthused Mclaren originally.
“The main thing is continuity,” Magnussen says. “Being with the same team, and also being in a car that hasn’t changed massively, so I’ve finally found my feet and found a rhythm. I feel much better and much more settled. I haven’t had this sort of consistency so far in my career.”
Magnussen has been in F1 throughout the V6 hybrid era, but this is the first time he’s enjoyed the security of a multi-year race contract (even at Mclaren, he raced just once in his second year, 2015, as injury cover for the concussed Alonso). That stability is good for his head, of course, but it also means he hasn’t had to start from scratch again in 2018 – learning how the team operates, how the car works, all the taken-for-granted stuff that clogs the mind when you’re new.
Knowing he has a stable position inside a team has let Magnussen relax into his driving, rather than “worrying about every single race and every move you make because you are worried it might decide your future”. He’s learned more about himself in the process – “what kind of car I need and what kind of driving style I have” – because, he admits: “I’m not an engineer, I’m not that clever in vehicle dynamics.”
In embarking on this journey of self-discovery, Magnussen feels properly supported by Haas and is revelling in an environment that is simpler than he’s known before, shorn of the politics he encountered at his previous teams. “It’s very non-political here and it’s pretty straightforward,” explains Magnussen, who feels he has also benefited from F1’s move to the faster cars and bigger tyres that coincided with his arrival at Haas, having grown frustrated by the extreme tyre management required previously.
“You have a management consisting of Guenther Steiner [team principal] and Gene Haas [team owner]. They’re leading the team and there’s no bullshit: it’s just a clean and clear management structure. It’s different to being in a team that has a big brand on top of it that is wanting and needing results because it can’t afford to lose. I feel there are a lot of people in the paddock who love their job and love F1, but some of the bigger teams have a culture problem, since they have all this pressure to deliver from
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN WAS ONCE MCLAREN’S NEXT BIG THING IN FORMULA 1: “YOU HAVE A MANAGEMENT CONSISTING OF GUENTHER STEINER [TEAM PRINCIPAL] AND GENE HAAS [TEAM OWNER]. THEY’RE LEADING THE TEAM AND THERE’S NO BULLSHIT: IT’S JUST A CLEAN AND CLEAR MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE” KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
a big brand and marketing point of view, whereas Haas is just pure passion.”
Team boss Steiner doesn’t think there’s “any magic” to Magnussen’s turnaround since they joined forces. He argues that the recent upswing in performance is simply a natural consequence of making Magnussen comfortable enough to extract his potential regularly. “I think what’s happened is that he’s got his confidence back,” Steiner says. “He’s very confident at the moment – in his abilities, in the car, in his surroundings. I think as the car gets better we see more of it.
“Last year he didn’t know us – it took a bit of time to, I wouldn’t say trust in us, but to figure us out. Once he got comfortable with us, he got more confident in himself. Everybody supports him – he knows there is no other agenda here other than ‘make him perform’.
“Starting the year with a good car has given him the last piece of confidence he needs to do what we all know he’s capable of. He’s a very talented guy. It’s him getting into a comfort zone where he can drive at the level his talent allows.”
Magnussen agrees that the environment at Haas has rejuvenated him, helping him rebuild the confidence lost to those early experiences at Mclaren and Renault. “I feel like I’m only back to my old self now,” he admits. “I’m enjoying going racing again. When I’m not racing, I can’t wait for the next one. I didn’t have that feeling in my first years in Formula 1. I had it when I was coming up through the other series – a week before the races I couldn’t sleep because I was excited. I kind of feel like that again now because I’m in a good environment and I feel good. I came here and immediately it felt like a team that needed me and wanted me, and wanted the type of driver that I am – an aggressive racer.”
Some – certainly Pierre Gasly (see page 70) – might say too aggressive. But Magnussen is clearly a driver who makes things happen in races, capable of scoring results better than his equipment merits. Given the way his form tailed off when under pressure during that debut season at Mclaren, the big question remains as to whether he possesses the mental strength to cope should he return to a bigger stage.
But, for now, Magnussen can rest easy in the relatively comfortable embrace of Haas. Matt Bishop used to run Mclaren’s communications department and knows Magnussen well. He reckons Kevin has found his “spiritual home” with the American team. “Ron Dennis once said to me ‘the kid is quick’, and Ron was right,” Bishop recalls. He also remembers being told by Trevor Carlin, who ran Magnussen in Formula 3 and Formula Renault 3.5, that Kevin was the best braker he’d ever seen.
“Of all the drivers I’ve ever worked with, I have never met one who has such a purist adoration of racing for racing’s sake,” Bishop adds. “His hero is Stirling Moss. He properly loves the sport, as well as being bloody good at it.
“ONCE KEVIN GOT COMFORTABLE WITH US, HE GOT MORE CONFIDENT IN HIMSELF. EVERYBODY SUPPORTS HIM – HE KNOWS THERE IS NO OTHER AGENDA HERE OTHER THAN ‘MAKE HIM PERFORM’” GUENTHER STEINER, HAAS TEAM PRINCIPAL
“One of the great things about Kevin, and I think it will continue to be a great help to him in his career, is that he is charming and witty and popular. Mechanics like him, engineers like him, marketing people like him, sponsors like him, journalists like him – because he’s got a natural charm. I think he’s found a really good comfort zone at Haas. That racer’s spirit I first saw five years ago has come to the fore again.”
Magnussen was considered by some to lack a certain work ethic in his early seasons, but that could be a misinterpretation of a laid-back persona that is similar to that of Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen. Both are straight-talking, honest and uninterested in the peripheral necessities that surround the modern grand prix driver.
Like Kimi, Magnussen is a driver of simple tastes, with a simple approach. That harmonises with this small, straightforward team, who, by their nature, cannot afford to get bogged down in complication and political machination. Haas would be exactly the sort of squad Räikkönen would love to drive for himself, if only they were capable of racing at the very front.
Magnussen’s race engineer, Giuliano Salvi, who worked with Räikkönen, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher during a long stint at Ferrari, sees the similarities with Kimi. According to him, both are more professional and harder-working than their reputations suggest, and both are guarded people who need to feel the trust of their teams in order to perform at their best.
“For sure there is a certain kind of sense of trying to change everybody’s opinion,” says Salvi of Magnussen, whose driving style – almost wholly dependent on rear-end stability at corner entry – reminds him of a young Massa.
“I think he is very loyal, very straight. I am from the very north of Italy, almost Austria, so I think we have something in common. I am not the typical Italian, I am from the mountains. We don’t speak very much. He was like a cat at first. He didn’t trust people. It was a cautious approach. Now we have a huge list of things we are doing together. It was a real transformation – it was like a cat becoming a dog!”
Salvi identifies three key races from 2017 that helped Magnussen’s transformation from wary cat to confident dog: China, where he scored his first points for the team; Baku, where he briefly ran third and overtook Hülkenberg and Massa in one move at Turn 1; and Mexico, where he took the fight to Lewis Hamilton and Alonso in inferior equipment. “After that it was a new relationship and approach,” Salvi notes. “He understood this was his new home, totally.”
The first part of 2018 suggests Kevin Magnussen is getting back to his best, thanks to this ‘new home’. As Bishop says: “I think he’s got his mojo back at Haas. And Kevin with his mojo back is a seriously combative, impressive and quick racing driver.”
“KEVIN IS CHARMING AND WITTY AND POPULAR… I THINK HE’S FOUND A REALLY GOOD COMFORT ZONE AT HAAS. THAT RACER’S SPIRIT I FIRST SAW FIVE YEARS AGO HAS COME TO THE FORE AGAIN” MATT BISHOP, MCLAREN’S FORMER HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS