Kevin Magnussen “It’s cool to be an F1 driver”[F1-Gate.com]

Kevin Magnussen has made an unexpected return to F1 with the Haas F1 team this season. Reflecting on his comeback, Magnussen says being an F1 driver is “very cool after all”.

Earlier this year, Kevin Magnussen was poised to extend his stay in America as a key member of Chip Ganassi Racing’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sudden banning of Nikita Mazepin from Haas F1 Team and F1 before the start of the 2022 season opened up the opportunity for Kevin Magnussen to return to Haas F1 Team on a multi-year deal. rice field.

Kevin Magnussen was convinced F1 was a thing of the past, but when he got an unexpected phone call from Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner, it was an offer he couldn’t turn down. say it was.

“I am very happy to continue my life outside of F1,” Magnussen said recently.

“I’m still racing, I’ve done a lot of races. I raced Le Mans with my dad as a teammate. It was a lot of fun, I raced in Indycars, sports cars at Daytona. I raced and I didn’t feel like I was missing out on F1.

“I never really missed Formula 1, but watching the races was a bit hurtful that I couldn’t do that anymore.”

“So when I fully retire, I think I will miss driving these cars and racing these cars forever.”

“I think it’s a really big privilege. Last year I emphasized how big a privilege it is. Once you lose it and then you get it back, it’s still very cool to be a Formula 1 driver.”

Kevin Magnussen got off to an ideal start to his comeback season with a fifth-place finish at the season opener in Bahrain.
“I still have to pinch myself,” Kevin Magnussen said.

“Being a Formula 1 driver is such a big thing. That’s one of the things I really started to realize last year when I wasn’t there.”

“From the outside … you can see how many people are watching it at home on race weekends and how many people are talking about it. I realized how big it was.”

“To get back to you, I am grateful to be able to attend all the races. I pay attention to the number of spectators and the size of the crowd.”

The all-new F1 regulations for 2022 promised a transformation among teams and influenced Kevin Magnussen’s decision.

“If it weren’t for the new regulations, and if Haas were the same as last year, if five more years had these rules, they probably would have hesitated,” Magnussen said.

“But I really saw it as an opportunity. There were no guarantees. Gunther didn’t promise anything. He explained

“Even being here in 2020, it was already clear that was the plan, so I was excited about it and I was like, ‘This could work.

But beyond his F1 status, Kevin Magnussen has enjoyed a fairly competitive season with the Haas F1 team.

Despite the inconsistent performances of the Haas F1 team, Kevin Magnussen recorded five top 10 finishes in the first half of the season at the wheel of a car whose development had been frozen until last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Kevin Magnussen warns it will take some time to understand and get the most out of the upgrade package, but hopes performance will take a step forward when F1 resumes next month. talk. .

“I expect many more performances,” said Kevin Magnussen.

“But with these upgrades, it can take a little while to really understand the characteristics and differences of the car until it fully unlocks its potential.”

“We’ve had a car that’s been running all year, but we’ve continually found more and more performance.”

Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team

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