A decade after making his grand prix debut and recording his first and solely podium end in his very first race, it lastly seems to be like Kevin Magnussen’s time in Components 1 is likely to be reaching its finish.
Though he was given a repechage of kinds in 2022 after a season away from the world championship, Haas have determined to maneuver on from the 31-year-old on the finish of the yr, choosing Esteban Ocon as their skilled possibility alongside the youthful promise of Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman.
However why have Haas determined to not present loyalty to the motive force who has represented them in additional grands prix than every other driver within the workforce’s historical past – which remains to be beneath a decade previous? Maybe that may be answered by taking a look at how Magnussen has in comparison with workforce mate Nico Hulkenberg. Whereas the motive force poached by Audi for 2025 and past sits on 22 factors on the summer time break, Magnussen solely has 5 factors achieved by means of only a pair of high grand prix finishes in 2024.
Magnussen has actually had good weekends this season. A number of ones, the truth is. He was in all probability the quicker of the 2 Haas drivers in Melbourne however misplaced out with the Digital Security Automobile, then pulled off among the best passes of the season to date on Alexander Albon. Then, in Imola, he was knocked out of Q1 largely due to being impeded by Kevin Magnussen, then gained six locations within the race to complete simply behind Hulkenberg on the chequered flag, which was an underrated efficiency.
Kevin Magnussen
| Greatest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 13 | 20 |
| GP end | 8 | 19 |
| Factors | 5 | |
He had one other sturdy weekend in Canada, once more ending behind his workforce mate in twelfth after making good use of moist tyres at first. Though he completed behind Hulkenberg once more, he was seemingly the higher performer of the 2 over the weekend. However in Austria, he was persistently stable. Though he misplaced out to Hulkenberg once more on Sunday, he was the extra constant Haas driver over the weekend and deserved greater than he acquired out of the weekend.
Nonetheless, Magnussen actually had his low factors too. He managed to amass ten tremendous licence penalty factors over simply three weekends to depart him at real danger of a race ban over the remainder of the season. His Miami weekend was particularly unclean, selecting up penalty factors for intentionally leaving the monitor a number of instances within the dash race, then taking out Logan Sargeant on Sunday. Though he has usually pushed in a self-sacrificing method to place his workforce first by prioritising Hulkenberg, it’s arduous to reward him with what have usually been clear violations of the racing guidelines.
Though Magnussen’s efforts during the last three seasons since rejoining the workforce will little doubt have been appreciated, it’s additionally arduous to really feel a lot sympathy for him if he’s to depart the grid on the finish of the season, given how Hulkenberg has had the clear benefit over these final two years. However with ten races seemingly left in his Components 1 profession, Magnussen nonetheless has an element to play for the workforce he is aware of higher than any driver within the subject.
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