Kevin Magnussen says he’s learned to have more realistic expectations on his return to Formula 1 after a year away.
The Haas driver made his Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 2014. He finished third in his first race, then was promoted to second after rival Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified.
However he hasn’t finished in the top four since, in a career which has spanned over 100 further starts with teams including Renault and Haas. He returned to the latter this year after leaving F1 at the end of 2020 and immediately scored their best result for four seasons.
Magnussen said he isn’t going to let that raise his expectations too high for the year ahead. “There’s always the danger that you have such a great first race and then you expect to be there every time,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.
“I’ve been in that situation before. My first race in Formula 1, I got on the podium and then after that I was kind of just always disappointed with everything that…