Today’s announcement by Haas confirms Kevin Magnussen will start just 12 more grands prix for them before moving on at the end of the season.
These may be the final half-dozen rounds of Magnussen’s Formula 1 career. And he embarks upon them knowing he is at greater risk of collecting a ban than anyone.
Magnussen has amassed 10 penalty points on his licence in the space of just five rounds earlier this year. Since then he’s felt at risk of collecting a ban for “a very minor thing.”
Three of Magnussen’s penalties came for collisions involving other drivers. He was also, unusually, given three penalty points for repeatedly leaving the track and gaining an advantage while trying to keep Lewis Hamilton behind him during the sprint race in Miami.
The upshot is two more penalty points over any of the remaining rounds will trigger a ban for Magnussen. He’s avoided collecting any in the six rounds since then, despite being involved in another collision in Monaco which triggered a race-stopping shunt, but it’s easy to see from the penalties other drivers have incurred during that time how tricky things could get for Magnussen.
Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Magnussen’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg each picked up two penalty points for incidents in Austria. Esteban Ocon had the same in Monaco.
All those were for collisions or incidents involving other drivers. But speaking at the previous round Magnussen said the threat of a ban won’t make any difference to how he approaches wheel-to-wheel racing.
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“It doesn’t make sense,” said Magnussen in response to a question from RaceFans. “I have this situation for the rest of the year.”
“I have to just go and race as best as I can, to my best ability and not change anything because of that situation,” he explained. “I think that’s going to be better overall over the season than holding back all the time, making sure that I don’t get a race ban.
“It’s better to just go for it and then if I get a race ban, I get a race ban.”
It remains to be seen whether Magnussen will be able to find a place with another Formula 1 team next year. This isn’t the first time his F1 career has seemingly reached an end: Haas dropped him at the end of 2020, following which he raced in IMSA and also made a one-off appearance for McLaren in IndyCar.
Magnussen has often praised the…
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