Yahoo Autos Kevin Magnussen Is Doing All Haas Asks
Kevin Magnussen debuted with a podium in his very first Formula 1 race. He was fired from McLaren at the end of that season, and in the nine seasons since he has failed to secure another. While that is certainly a disappointing outcome for a once-promising prospect, he keeps his career alive by consistently delivering what teams expect. A low-wattage 2023 illustrates that point well.
Magnussen scored just three points, all from tenth-place finishes in feature races. It was the second-worst year of his career by points scored, but it was all a Haas team that failed to field a competitive car could reasonably expect. It is enough that Haas knows the driver in Magnussen's car is not their problem and that is enough for the team to keep Magnussen in the car.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Years before he joined Haas, Kevin Magnussen was the future at McLaren. A 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 title earned him Sergio Perez's car in the 2014 season. Unfortunately, both he and Perez (and, years later, Stoffel Vandoorne) found themselves at a struggling McLaren wholly unequipped to help a young driver develop alongside the team. He was dropped within a year for Fernando Alonso and spent 2015 as a reserve driver.
2016 took him to Renault, where he comfortably outdueled Joylon Palmer at another storied team at an all-time low. He scored points twice, but his decision to move to Haas in 2017 actually looked at the time like something of a move up the grid. That was the first of a four-year internal rivalry with Romain Grosjean, a similar talent with a very different background and driving style. While Grosjean beat him in the standings in 2017 and 2020, he reached the team's all-time high for a driver when he finished 9th in 2018.
That pair was finally broken up after a disastrous 2020 season turned into an even more disastrous 2021 for Haas. Grosjean went to IndyCar, where a promising season in a Dale Coyne Racing car earned him a promotion to Andretti Autosport and an expected shot at a championship. Magnussen looked to sports cars, first signing with Cadillac's IMSA program and later agreeing to a future deal to lead Peugeot's World Endurance Championship team.
Magnussen secured one win and five podiums as a sports car driver in North America, adding one disappointing IndyCar start as an injury replacement for Arrow McLaren at Road America. His move to Peugeot was put on hold when Haas F1 moved on from the well-funded but talent-challenged Nikita Mazepin in the 2022 offseason, leading to a triumphant return season highlighted by a pole at Interlagos.
HOW 2023 WENT
For both Haas and Kevin Magnussen, 2023 was a major step back to the mean. Haas dropped from eighth to tenth in the constructor's standings, while Magnussen fell from 13th all the way down to 19th. He scored just three points, all 10th-place finishes. The team as a whole scored just one point after Monaco, a disappointing end to a disappointing season.
The team underperformed, but Magnussen's three finishes in the points during actual grand prix events were two more than teammate Nico Hülkenberg accomplished. While it is unimpressive, it is all that the team realistically expects of either veteran driver. Until Haas improves the program and gets out of the bottom tier of Formula 1 programs, Magnussen's ability to keep the car in the points when the situation makes a finish of 10th or better possible should be enough to keep the team happy.
GOALS FOR 2024
With that in mind, Magnussen enters the 2024 season with modest goals: Take the Haas car as far as it can go, even if that means just one or two finishes in the points. For the past few seasons, the back of the F1 grid has been a mess of between two and four teams that struggle to accomplish that on a week to week basis. Haas can improve on its championship finish with only a few outlier finishes of 7th or 8th, and Magnussen can deliver those on the days the car is competitive. On the days it is not, his job is to give good notes and keep the team from wasting its budget on repairs to crashed cars.
This is what Magnussen, a veteran at this point in his career, has proven he can do. It may not be particularly glamorous, and it may not be as promising for Haas as a young talent with the potential to set the world on fire in the future, but it is a solid building block for a team that has lacked direction for most of its existence. So long as Kevin Magnussen can keep providing this, his place in F1 should be secure.
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