A few days before the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season, Kevin Magnussen’s phone lit up. A familiar name wanted to speak to him.
His former Haas team boss Guenther Steiner was on the line with an important question. He wanted his ex-driver back, with immediate effect to replace the ousted Nikita Mazepin. In short order, Magnussen was on a plane heading to Bahrain for the final pre-season test.
Fast-forward six months later and Magnussen is fully ingrained back in the F1 family for the third time. Now a father, he sits 11th in the driver standings, comfortably ahead of junior team mate Mick Schumacher.
Having arrived in F1 with McLaren in 2014 but spent most of 2015 on the sidelines before returning with Renault, Magnussen originally joined Haas in 2017 and stayed there for four years. His departure came when Steiner replaced his experienced pairing of Magnussen and Romain Grosjean with two rookies, for reasons which were primarily financial.
Magnussen then spent much of last year in America, participating in sports cars and IndyCar and was set to join Peugeot for the World Endurance Championship. Then came the unexpected call from Haas.
He has therefore made a second return to Formula 1, a sport he was steeped in from an early age. He arrived in the world well before father Jan Magnussen made his debut as a grand prix driver.
The first Magnussen to race in F1 was dominating the British Formula Three championship in 1994, the year his son turned two. Jan made his Formula 1 debut the following year, and after bowing out mid-way through 1998 spent the next years in and around F1, before concentrating on sports car racing.
The younger Magnussen’s grand prix career has already lasted considerably longer than his father’s. He says his childhood shaped him into the racing driver he is now, and his hero father was keen for him to chase his F1 dream.
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“It’s not like I’ve had this kind of ‘super-pacing’ family,” he explained in an exclusive interview for RaceFans. “It’s not been like that.
“But because I was so into it and I really, really was dreaming about becoming a Formula 1 driver, they wanted me to go for it, and then it’s kind of my choice. Then [they were like] now you’ve chosen, you’ve got to go and [make it happen].”
Magnussen’s return to the sport saw some big changes in his life:…
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