A decade after making his grand prix debut and recording his first and only podium finish in his very first race, it finally looks like Kevin Magnussen’s time in Formula 1 might be reaching its end.
Although he was given a repechage of sorts in 2022 after a season away from the world championship, Haas have decided to move on from the 31-year-old at the end of the year, opting for Esteban Ocon as their experienced option alongside the youthful promise of Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman.
But why have Haas decided not to show loyalty to the driver who has represented them in more grands prix than any other driver in the team’s history – which is still under a decade old? Perhaps that can be answered by looking at how Magnussen has compared to team mate Nico Hulkenberg. While the driver poached by Audi for 2025 and beyond sits on 22 points at the summer break, Magnussen only has five points achieved through just a pair of top grand prix finishes in 2024.
Magnussen has certainly had good weekends this season. Multiple ones, in fact. He was probably the faster of the two Haas drivers in Melbourne but lost out with the Virtual Safety Car, then pulled off one of the best passes of the season so far on Alexander Albon. Then, in Imola, he was knocked out of Q1 largely thanks to being impeded by Kevin Magnussen, then gained six places in the race to finish just behind Hulkenberg at the chequered flag, which was an underrated performance.
Kevin Magnussen
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 13 | 20 |
| GP finish | 8 | 19 |
| Points | 5 | |
He had another strong weekend in Canada, again finishing behind his team mate in 12th after making good use of wet tyres at the start. Although he finished behind Hulkenberg again, he was likely the better performer of the two over the weekend. But in Austria, he was consistently solid. Although he lost out to Hulkenberg again on Sunday, he was the more consistent Haas driver over the weekend and deserved more than he got out of the weekend.
However, Magnussen certainly had his low points too. He managed to amass ten super licence penalty points over just three weekends to leave him at genuine risk of a race ban over the rest of the season. His Miami weekend was especially unclean, picking up penalty points for deliberately leaving the track several times in the sprint race, then taking out Logan Sargeant on Sunday. Although he has often driven in a self-sacrificing manner to put his team first by prioritising Hulkenberg, it’s hard to reward…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…