#themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

why k-mag is a walking green flag and you should stan him:

devoted girl dad who puts his daughter over anything else. he said in an interview that he wanted louise, his wife, and laura, his daughter, to be at every race if possible, but they are also very focused on ensuring that laura is happy and healthy and if they feel like it’s too much travelling for laura or that she’s not thriving then they will change plans last minute. and when he got the offer to come back to f1, kev’s only concern was about the time he would lose out on with his daughter.  

is either still vegan or was vegan due to concerns about the environment and as a way to balance his co2 emissions as he admitted that due to his job then he is guilty of higher emission than most people. in the same interview, literally one single interview with a danish newspaper back in 2019, k-mag came up with a few ideas on how f1 could become more green, but also said he was probably not going to talk much about it because he realised that he would be a hypocrite due to his job, so he was very much self-aware which is just another green flag. and he said that people who do not believe in climate change are stupid.  

praises his competitors whether he wins or lose. after austin 2022, kevin lost out on 2 points to sebastian vettel after a heroic stint on his tyres in literally the last few seconds of the race. despite this, he was full of praise for seb in multiple interviews. and after jeddah 2023, he praised yuki for his excellence defence, but this time kevin was the one who came out victorious, but he made a point out of acknowledging yuki’s excellent driving. and both times he sought out his competitors right after the race to shake their hands.  

defends his teammates if they are treated unjustly. both with jolyon and mick, there were times when the criticism was fair, but also times when it was too much and was more bullying. kevin tore renault to shreds for bullying palmer and talking shit behind his back, he said that while palmer was not the best racing driver, he was underestimated because he was so intelligent (and now palmer is an excellent f1 analyst! so k-mag was very right about that). he defended mick against his bosses several times and treated him well. there are also instances during races where he calls out competitors for dirty driving against his teammates.    

got p2 on his debut race for mclaren as a 21-year old rookie. kevin started his f1 career with beating his former world champion teammate with 15 years of experience in f1 and while he lost out to him over the season, he did show great promise especially in qualifying which was considered one of his weaknesses. while qualifying between the two of them were pretty equal, k-mag managed to qualify 0.2 seconds ahead of button on average  ― which is the same time hamilton managed to beat button. kevin did all this... and then mclaren fucked him over, forced him to say no to a seat, but then demoted him to reserve driver, refused to give him a seat in another racing series before finally firing him from mclaren ON HIS FUCKING BIRTHDAY. so danny ric is not the first driver to get screwed over by mclaren.   

worked as a welder before his big racing break due to lack of funds. as so many before him, kevin ran out of money as the sport got more and more expensive. before he even had the chance to turn professional, it looked like options of getting a seat anywhere would be impossible because no one could help him on his way financially. his dad, while a decorated racing driver, did not earn as much as you’d expect a racing driver to earn and he was super busy with his own career, so kevin got a job as a welder until suddenly a rich man from denmark decided to sponsor him. but this means that kevin knows what “real life” is like and he has continously respected that. his mechanics love him and he hangs out with them more than his fellow racing drivers. during the discussion about the number of races in a season calendar, kevin has refused to complain for himself and has always said that the victims of the long and packed season are the mechanics and engineers who cannot get home to their families as often. while he does admit being away so much is difficult, he also pointed out that he is travelling in business class and can get home between races, something the mechanics cannot.  

raised by a single mother, who was also a teen mother, and he has several tattoos in her honour. when he was a teenager, his mum, britt, got ovarian cancer that unfortunately spread and for several years she battled with it to the point where the doctors did not think she would survive. but luckily they did not give up on her and britt ended up being free of cancer after many years of being plagued by it. in her honour, kevin has a guardian angel on his chest, the one who looked over his mum, and he also has ‘mum’ as a tattoo on his wrist below a tattoo of praying hands. kevin’s dad, jan magnussen, was in his life but is also a racing driver and only really settled down in denmark when kevin was already a grown teenager and had his own career, so kevin barely saw him during his childhood and jan himself has admitted their relationship is a relationship between friends than dad-son due to the lack of day-to-day parenting he did for most of k-mag’s life.   

is a champion for girls. kevin has said the most important people in his life is his mum, his wife and his daughter. he is also personally mentoring a 14-year old female karting talent, alba larsen, to help her with her dream of becoming a professional racing driver. he has praised her devotion, passion and skill. he has gotten his whole family onboard, so now his dad is also helping mentor her while kevin is away, his uncle is a mechanic and helps her with her kart despite the fact that his younger brother, luca, is her competitor as he’s the same age and also does karting (kevin and jan are also training him, of course!)   

managed to get pole last season in a haas. and on paper, it should not have been possible. even in the dry sessions, k-mag had a pace that cannot really be explained. according to f1 own analysis and data, the haas was, at the time, 1.35 second slower than red bull, but even in the dry sessions kevin managed to get within 0.5 second of max verstappen. and not only that, his pole lap was only 0.8 second off the lap max did in q2 despite the track being slippery. while circumstances worked in kevin’s favour, he also managed to beat seemingly impossible odds. the only true explanation for why kevin managed to do what he did is skill. ask yourselves what the time might have been if k-mag had been in the red bull...   

is one of only a handful of drivers not to live in a tax haven. he went back to live in denmark for the first time since he was a teenager in 2020 after his wife got pregnant and will not be moving away from denmark again despite the high income tax for the sake of his family’s comfort and well-being. out of all his seasons in formula 1, he only spent 2 seasons living outside either the uk or denmark and he moved to an area where several danish athletes live due to better weather and better location for international travel.   

is around the same age as his wife and she’s not a model. the bar is literally on the floor for male racing drivers, people. but at least k-mag isn’t one of them ― and by model then i mean the actual profession, there is no doubt that louise is gorgeous. also i have nothing against models, but it’s just such a cliché that rich racing drivers end up with them.  

is a big fan of dinosaurs and space. look, these are the greenest flag interests that i can think of, he really is just a nerd. other drivers have interests like dj’ing, golf, fashion and collector of luxury cars  ― and then you just have kevin being like “idk i like space and dinosaurs” 😂

#kevin magnussen #haas f1 team #formula 1 #f1 #am i ashamed for going full stan? no bc this is me spreading k-mag propaganda for the good of the people #the people deserve to know #cancer tw #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

i can see that other people than me are surprised by kevin being vegan, so i’ve done some digging and found a danish article about it.

kevin actually went vegan in 2019. his biggest reason for it was to cut down his co2 footprint for environmental reasons. he admitted that he felt guilty about all the travelling he does, being a part of a sport that is hard to turn green, so he wanted to do something more to compensate. and he also believes that f1 should be one of the first motorsports to really lead the charge to becoming more green. in the article from 2019, you can really tell that he’s been thinking about ways the sport can become more green. his ideas are things we are already discussing and maybe has already been implemented, but he’s apparently been saying it for several years now and not many of us noticed. 

here’s the things he thinks f1 should do (and there might be more, again please remember this is from 2019):

plan the f1 calendar to minimise travelling

every drink and food sold at the f1 venues should come in recycled/recyclable containers 

the more co2 neutral a team can be out in their factories, the more money they should get from f1 

the tyres should be improved so they don’t have to go through as many sets during a race weekend (he even said he finds it insane how many tyres they use during a weekend!)

generally it’s not easy to find a lot about kevin’s diet or his views on the environment, which is a shame because it seems like he really has a lot of ideas and feelings about it. i need the f1 journalists to ask him about it. because he really is a guy to mostly talk about stuff when directly asked.

#kevin magnussen #haas f1 team #formula 1 #f1 #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

debrief with kevin magnussen - episode 3 out of 3 (by viaplay) part 2

the japanese grand prix 

the visibility was even worse than what we saw from the camera on top of the car, kevin could not see past his front wheels. in the studio they are going through the start where we also see albon drive directly into k-mag and kevin just said “and here i’m hit by albon who also can’t see anything.” basically the visibility was so low that they were almost all driving completely blind with 250 km/h. and as kev points out, he also cannot just go slow or break in weird places because then the cars behind him will slam into him.  

kevin would have crashed directly into sainz if norris had not gotten wheelspin at the corner before which allowed k-mag to pass him. if that had not happened, norris and k-mag would have gone side by side and kevin would have smashed into sainz. in the onboard, even from the view of the camera on top of the car, you literally cannot see the ferrari despite it being red through the spray. it is just invisible and it’s so so scary to think about how bad that crash could have been for both of them.    

the spray has gotten significantly worse due to the new cars having more downforce. kev doesn’t know how it can be fixed, but something definitely needs to be done because it is too dangerous. and he does not want to lose the wet races because those are often the most fun. but yeah, he confirmed that the reason they don’t really use the full wets/extreme wets is because of the amount of spray they cause. 

kev vs seb duel 

in the studio, they analysed the duel kev and seb had at the end of cota and while kevin is still a little annoyed at losing it, he did praise vettel multiple times. especially at the corner where kevin took the ideal racing line and forced seb to go around him, he said that he could barely go full speed through it (partly because his tyres were disintegrating but it’s also just hard), but seb somehow managed to go full speed on the dirty part of the track to pass k-mag. and then kevin tried to trick seb to take back his position, but vettel read him and blocked him, which kevin also found impressive but annoying. kevin does point out that seb did get a track limits warning during the duel, hahaha, but in the end then he said that seb just drove brilliantly and he has nothing but respect for that. 

mick schumacher and nico hulkenberg 

kevin is looking forward to working with nico who he says is a really good driver, he is a safe choice for haas and is a very consistent driver. he also has a lot of self-esteem on track. he is really looking forward to the competition with nico. he said that was what worked so well with him and grosjean. everyone, not just the drivers, on the different sides of the garage knew they had to work at their absolute top level to beat the other side. and that is what a formula 1 team needs.  

when asked why kevin thinks haas chose hulkenberg over schumacher, kev said this: “there is nothing wrong with mick's talent, he is definitely competent in the car. but he could not get the talent to come out often enough. he could get really stressed. and then he made some costly mistakes and had some weekends where he was too far behind. there is nothing wrong with his top level, maybe his bottom level was just too low sometimes. but he is still pretty inexperienced. last year he was the team’s darling and the unquestioned leader because the other guy was a mess. and then here i come out of nowhere and everyone is so happy to see me. that was an unfortunate and tough situation for him. and then mick also just have a surname that puts such a burden on him. the pressure is not only from others but himself too. imagine carrying the legacy of michael schumacher. i think it's just too much pressure.”

the 2023 season

formula 1 is all about out-developing the others because no one is standing still, so while the goal for haas does have to be to take another step forward, they are also aware that it is not so simple, but they have better tools for taking that step forward next season than ever before. but kevin is excited because haas will get new pitstop equipment (the one they used last season was from 2016...), they get a bigger strategy team and more people working on set-up. kevin hear some things through the grapevine and he says that there are real indications that the car is looking good. they are matching more with ferrari. and kevin reveals that haas also sacrificed some money in 2022 to use it on the development of the 2023 car instead, so he is hopeful that the car will be even better.  

 the biggest problem with the 2022 car was when they were running low downforce. as the only team on the grid haas did not have a dedicated low downforce rear wing and that was a big disadvantage.    

kevin was asked about how hard it will be with 24 races (which we now know will only be 23), but he does not want to complain for himself because the mechanics have it much harder than the drivers. it will mostly be bad for them and he does think the race calendar is too packed with races because the mechanics cannot get home between races anymore. he is worried that the mechanics are going to leave the sport. the drivers have the luxury of flying home between most races and can sit in business class, so he does not like to complain.  

he is looking forward to all the classic races in 2023 like monaco, suzuka and silverstone. but he is also looking forward to las vegas. not really because of the track which he admits look a little boring, but he thinks it will be a really big event. in his opinion, the u.s. is good at creating a big show and now they have just found a new sport to put a lot of effort into.  

kevin has no problem with the new fans of f1. he is aware that a significant amount of fans, especially american fans, have started watching formula 1 because of ‘drive to survive’ and he thinks it’s fine. the most important thing for him is that the sport is growing. even if some fans see him more as reality star (or as he says “a bearded kim kardashian”), kevin is just happy that they are watching the races. (mai note: essentially k-mag says “stop gatekeeping f1, it is for everyone″).

#kevin magnussen #sebastian vettel #mick schumacher #nico hulkenberg #themagnussencorner #formula 1 #f1

[mcgnussen]

“the best kevin” - a danish viaplay documentary about kevin magnussen (1/2):

brasil pole

k-mag did his outlap as quickly as he could to feel the track and noted all the wet patches and then remembered them all for his pole lap  

after his lap, it slowly began to dawn on people in the garage that maybe kev had done something amazing. jesper, relation manager of haas (and danish), and the press officer both realised at the same time what might be happening.the press officer basically punched the table in excitement.   

kevin actually hated the fact that the red flag came out. the track was already too wet for anyone to beat him, so then he was afraid that the track might end up drying up and other people would improve. it was torture for him to just sit and wait.   

his dad, jan magnussen, was at home with his wife (kev’s step mum) and son and they were just on the couch, drinking coffee as usual, and watching kevin race. he was so excited and moved by kevin’s pole, he also got a ton of messages from the stewart family, old teammates, racing drivers from all over the world, friends and family congratulating him on kevin’s pole. kevin’s wife (who jan calls lulu which is adorable) called him and wept tears of joy, kevin’s mum, britt, called him and wept tears of joy, his brother, erik, called him and wept tears of joy (erik magnussen is one of the world’s best kart mechanics and has trained kevin from a young age).   

erik magnussen on why kevin’s lap mattered so much: “it’s the product of 25 years of hard work. of all the many hours we drove in the snow and rain during the winter, with our hands so cold that we had to heat them up by the grill. all those ‘sour’ hours that we worked that all culminated in one perfect lap at the right time.” all that training is what has given kevin the right instincts to pull off that lap.  

luna kristofi (danish reporter): “[...] and then everyone who usually get pole just stood and waited for kevin. [...] he kept his helmet on and normally drivers do that to hide anger, but i think kevin kept it on to hide all the tears.” his physio, nikolaj, said that everyone were shouting kevin’s name, no one really knew what to do because they had not been in the situation before. he described it as the craziest 200 metres of his life.  

gene called kevin right after quali and congratulated him. he was pretty calm, but very excited and happy to see his car and driver on pole.  

random mai observations: kevin kept hugging jesper and nikolaj... and everyone else pretty much. all the haas staff got big bear hugs. official new piece of kevin lore: he is definitely a hugger. and it was also very moving to see so many different people congratulating kevin, there were staff from aston martin, from red bull and so on who all went up and congratulated him. the trainers from all the teams also went up to nikolaj and congratulated him and said that haas fully deserved it. kevin described it as the underdog story that f1 needed. it is clear that the whole paddock was excited for k-mag and haas, i also believe this is evidence of kev’s popularity within the paddock. like mick said then kevin basically knows everyone in the paddock.

the comeback 

kevin was in the studio for the last race of the season in 2021 and he believed that max verstappen would become world championship.  

he did not contact guenther after seeing that mazepin had lost his contract because kevin thought it was totally impossible. but then when he saw guenthers name on his phone, he guessed what his old boss wanted to ask him. kev said yes immediately, but then realised that he probably needed to talk to his wife and family, becoming unsure if it was the right thing to do. so he asked guenther for a day to consider it. jan said that kevin’s biggest worry was to lose out on time with his daughter.   

jesper heard the kevin rumours but did not actually believe it. however, kevin called him and said it was true. and all jesper could think of was that picture of herbie that k-mag posted, he thought that meant kevin had burned his bridges. but as kev said then it was just banter and he knew the team would find it funny. kevin says that haas is a very relaxed team, they don’t take themselves super seriously and there are no big egos. he is sure that other teams would not have found it funny.   

kevin was unsure if he could perform on the highest level from the get go. he was surprised by his p5 and he said the team went absolutely nuts. apparently one the mechanics cracked upon his lip during the wild celebrations in the garage. he could barely hear his engineer from the noise in the garage when he crossed the finish line in p5. 

jeddah and new physio nikolaj 

jeddah is the hardest track of the season when it comes to the neck which was bad timing for kevin since it was only the second race  

kevin said to the team to only fuel him for one quick lap per set of tyres because he could not manage to do two like everyone else did, his neck simply would not let him and he ended up losing all control of his neck and it just flopped around   

nikolaj, his new physio for the season, said that they have had to do a lot of treatment on kevin’s neck during the season. sometimes the treatments would even happen into the night and they would both be half asleep. and the treatments are painful, so kevin has really suffered through it during the 2022 season.   

kevin enjoyed being lazy during 2021 and admitted to not having spent a lot of time in the gym. luna said that it was easy to see he had not been hitting the gym a lot and they all knew he would go through a world of pain until he was back in shape. but kevin started working hard in the gym as soon as he signed the contract with haas.   

k-mag and nikolaj are really good friends. they like travelling the world together. in the documentary, we see them in the car planning a camping trip together.

#kevin magnussen #themagnussencorner #part 2 will be posted tomorrow! #formula 1 #f1 #haas f1 team

[mcgnussen]

“the best kevin” - a danish viaplay documentary about kevin magnussen (2/2):

haas troubles and meatball flags

according to kevin then you have to be a little arrogant when things don’t go your way in f1, you have to tell yourself that it will solve itself because if you start overthinking then you will begin making mistakes (he compares it to losing in poker and then you start betting more and more to gain what you have lost)  

k-mag’s only comment to the fia’s behaviour this year was a laugh and him saying “i’m not really sure what to say” which tells me he has plenty to say but also know not to say it 😅  

nikolaj, his physio/trainer, says that kevin is a master in getting over bad race weekends and focusing on the next race, he also gives louise props for this as she sends a lot of laura videos to kev to help distract him   

he says that it is still hard not to be affected when it does not go to plan, but a bad race weekend does not ruin his entire week anymore. kevin is more focused on solutions than dwelling on bad results and when he gets home to denmark, he puts it all aside and is there for louise and laura  

beforehand kevin would fear the future and was constantly in a state of “what if?” but now he does look at f1 more as a job and says it is still very important but it’s not everything in his life

the japanese gp and fear

kevin could quickly tell that the japanese gp would be very risky due to the amount of rain and he was not comfortable with it. as he says then the real danger in f1 is not hitting the wall (although obviously that can also be deadly but there is a high chance of survival) but instead hitting another car that you cannot see due to poor conditions and that is what kevin feared during the japanese gp  

driving in spray is comparable to driving in a thick cloud where you cannot even see your front wheels, you basically cannot even be sure that you are driving on the track   

even before the red flag then kevin has made up his mind that is was simply too dangerous and had backed off a little bit

austin and mark slade

there was a kevin and marcus ericsson reunion in austin! the two of them have known each other since they were kids and were pretty good buddies when marcus was also on the f1 grid    

kevin does not think about how many races without points, he deems that as bad energy and that is not how he works, so he did not have that in mind in austin  

having mark slade as a race engineer has really helped kevin who is grateful for mark’s vast experience and he has a high level of trust in him, kev said in the documentary that it allowed him to just focus on driving the car and not worry about everything else (earlier in the year then kev confessed that he had basically been given extra responsibilities due to a constant change of race engineers)   

during the austin gp, kevin decided to try and drive in a different way to nurse his tyres from the get go and it works. he then tells the team that he believes that he can get the tyres to the end and then the team had to decide whether to trust him or not. it was basically an all or nothing strategy. the team decided to trust him and told him to finish the race on the medium tyres. in the end, he finished the race as the only driver on a one-stop strategy with 38 laps old mediums that was supposed to only last 20 laps according to pirelli, the two points he scored in austin was meant that haas beat alpha tauri in the constructors  

while kevin was annoyed to lost the position to vettel who was on 15 laps old hards, he did think they managed some really good racing on that last lap of the austin gp  

kevin credit mark slade for his pole position, he said that it was mark who made sure everyone in the team did the right things and got him out in front of the queue

the brazilian sprint and kevin’s ambitions 

there is this cute scene with mark slade taking pictures of kevin’s car in the p1 box like a proud parent and then he has a conversation with guenther about it being a long time since he’s been there and guenther saying “i have never been here!” 😂  

kevin says his ultimate ambition is still to become world champion, he says that it feels fake to say “i’m totally alright with being where i am, it does not matter if i become world champion or not”, kevin is still aiming high and he feels that if he was offered a place in a top team then he would be deserving of the chance and he knows that he would be able to do a good job   

jesper said that when mazepin bought his way into the team then he felt like it was the beginning of the end of formula 1, but his love and belief in f1 returned when kevin got back purely on talent  

jan says that kevin being out of formula 1 was the extra push he needed, he said there was nothing to be afraid of anymore for kevin because he now knows there is a good life waiting on the other side of f1 as well and now he can drive with less pressure and be more honest with himself and the team, he says this is the best kevin (hence the title) that he has ever seen  

kevin says that he has never been afraid of getting hurt but he has been very afraid of failure and now he is not as afraid anymore  

kiesa, one of the danish experts, believes that there is a chance for kevin to get into a top team if he proves himself with amazing results several times during a season and the timing is right 

#kevin magnussen #themagnussencorner #formula 1 #f1 #haas f1 team

[mcgnussen]

excerpt from a danish article about kevin and his teammates - and the 2023 season:

kevin and his teammates

the collaboration with schumacher was uncomplicated compared to the relationship with romain grosjean. during the first years, information did not flow completely freely between the french and the danish side of the garage. after a year in sports cars, kevin magnussen completely changed his approach to the teamwork part of racing. he returned as a team player who openly shared knowledge and tried to help his young colleague to the best of his ability. especially during the first half of the 2022 season, their relationship was like mentor and student.

the expectation from the team is that nico hülkenberg will push his danish colleague far more than schumacher did - especially during qualification. but despite the prospect of finding it much more difficult to dominate his teammate, the approach to working with nico hülkenberg is the same as it was with mick schumacher.

kevin: “i am in a different place and i still am, so it will be the same with nico. for me, the focus is on the fact that we are a team and we must work together. i think my ego has diminished.”

when asked about his relationship with nico hülkenberg, kevin says: “frankly, i understand people joke about it because it's easy. but that [suck my balls episode] was five years ago, and it was an insignificant thing.”

interviewer: “and you’ve had children and got married...”

kevin: “yes, not with each other though.”

although kevin magnussen advocates teamwork, there is still a need for internal rivalry between teammates. in the first half of the 2019 season, the haas duo drove together too often on the track, but the collaboration was exemplary despite that, according to magnussen.

kevin: “with romain there was a really good and healthy fight, although i know that netflix showed it in a different way and the press picked up that narrative. but actually it was healthy. we had a good time with each other, romain and i. it was something that meant that you always knew you would be beaten if you didn't do your absolute best.”

interviewer: “which of your teammates have you learned the most from so far?”

kevin: “jenson. also due to the fact that it was my first year and i had a lot to learn. but he is also the most experienced. at the time, he was in his 15th season. there is just so much to learn. you see both his strengths and weaknesses, and then you learn from his strengths. but you also focus a lot on yourself.”

on the 2023 season

interviewer: “what else is needed to take the steps forward that you would like to take next year?”

kevin: “first of all the obvious. we have got a title sponsor in moneygram and the stability it brings is the most important thing, but we have had a good season that provides momentum and that can be built on.”

interviewer: “where is the most to be found?”

kevin: “on the car. that's not to say that the operational aspects can't also be improved, but if we rolled the red bull into our garage, we would also win.”

interviewer: “mercedes came back at the end of the season. how long do you think it will be before the field starts to gather?”

kevin: “i don't know if it ever will although it would be cool. after all, they find ways to gain an advantage anyway. if you have money in this sport, then even if there is a budget cap, there will be an advantage.”

#kevin magnussen #nico hulkenberg #mick schumacher #romain grosjean #jenson button #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

debrief with kevin magnussen - episode 3 out of 3 (by viaplay) part 1

lessons from the 2022 season

kevin’s big takeaway from the season is how to deal with the tyres. generally kev wore down the tyres much more quickly than mick, especially after the big upgrade, and he has tried to change his driving style to spare the tyres more. kevin likes to be very aggressive at the start since all the cars are close and it’s the optimal time to get ahead, but for some reason, the tyres did not like that. so he would get ahead and then just fall back. whereas mick is very careful at the start, but he did not lose as much momentum as kevin, and they discovered that the first 2-3 laps on the tyres were crucial for the entire stint. meaning that even after the start when k-mag tried to take care of the tyres then they never really wanted to go far. so kevin has been forced to actually hold back, which he has found quite hard since it goes against his instinct and he also finds it boring.  

he credits mark slade for making a big difference. mark is really good at spotting kev’s weaknesses (mai note: lmao it sounds bad but k-mag is very appreciative of it) and sets the car up to try and combat those weaknesses. mark is good at setting the right direction. it was kevin who did that before got mark, but as he says, an engineer does understand the car and the set-up better than a racing driver. 

highs and lows 

the best part of the season is that kevin felt like there was an opportunity to do something cool almost every race weekend. it has felt possible to get some good results. that motivation of knowing there is a small chance of getting a crazy result has been very joyful for kev.    

the worst part has been the frustration with the fia regarding the meatball flags. kevin points out that is mainly happened in the races where he had good pace and a good shot of points, it was never those weekends where haas was far off the pace.  

kevin believes haas is in a good spot right now. he feels like there is momentum in the team and the interest for the team - especially with the moneygram title sponsorship. it is a very big sum of money. he says that haas will still be underdogs even if they hit the cost cap since the big teams still have a lot of advantages elsewhere, but he is confident that haas will make good use of the money.

brasil pole 

the trick to getting pole was kevin’s outlap where he went much faster than he usually would to test where the grip was. usually you would not go that fast due to tyre degradation, but he thought it more relevant to judge the grip than to protect his tyres.    

haas did also think about choosing intermediates for kevin, but they decided on slicks and sent him out first. but his tyres did cool down a lot while he was out there which was the risk, but it all worked out in the end.    

kevin was actually annoyed by the red flag that george caused. because already during his in-lap, despite the fact he was driving slow, he was slipping around so he knew that quali was done. so when he is told that he is p1 then he is ecstatic as he knows no one will be able to improve. but then george brings out the red flag which is when he says “don’t celebrate yet” to the team as he was afraid the track might dry up again. so kevin would still have gotten pole without the red flag.

brasil sprint and race

the goal was p7 in the sprint. kevin knew red bull, ferrari and mercedes would all overtake him sooner and later, so he did not want to sacrifice the tyres in a futile effort to keep them behind. norris was a little faster than he hoped, so he also lost a position to him. but he was generally happy with the result of the sprint.    

kevin was pretty chill about daniel driving into him and there are clearly no hard feelings. they analysed the move on screen and he explained it from both point of views. kev said the move went wrong because daniel was too focused on the alpha tauri, but also because it seemed like a half-hearted overtake attempt. when they entered the corner, daniel did not try and get up beside kevin, so he was not in the right position to overtake, so kevin clocks that and then fully focus on the car in front. but then he is suddenly hit (mai note: the move looks even weirder when you look back at it in slow mo, i have no idea what daniel was thinking like there was no way it would ever be successful). one of the experts said it was a sign of a lack of confidence from daniel.  

during the race then he was stuck on the track, but he remembered that the same had happened with alonso, so he assumed the track maybe did not have the infrastructure to send a car to pick him up, so he decides to just chill and watch the race. he attempted to talk to the marshals, but they could not speak a word of english. he assumes after the race, he could just follow the marshals, but then he quickly realises that he is stuck. he waits another 10 minutes, but then decide to go back on his own. the marshals spot him near the startline, they cut open the fence for him and k-mag finds himself surrounded by a lot of fans, which he says was a little scary but he also said “oh well then i can say that i’ve had that experience!”

#kevin magnussen #haas f1 team #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

some points from the ‘beyond the grid’ podcast episode with jan magnussen:

who is jan magnussen?

jan is a three-time karting world champion, british formula 3 champion, formula ford festival winner, four-time le mans winner, 24 hours of daytona winner and former f1 driver for mclaren and stewart. as of 2017, he was the most winning racing driver in europe (mai note: this might not be the case anymore, but it’s still pretty damn cool he could ever boast about that.)  

he is currently 49 years old, father of three children, including kevin magnussen. he had kevin when he was only 19 years old. his other son, luca, has begun to show some promise in karting and recently won fourth place in the danish championship and is reported only getting better and better. considering luca is only around 13 years old, this is pretty promising if he should wish to be a racing driver like his dad and big brother.  

martin whitmarsh believes jan was the greatest raw racing talent since ayrton senna. 

his road to formula 1 and his f1 career

his racing career really took off when he finally got some funding and was able to join the stewart team in the british formula 3. he did a few races for them in 1993, getting a podium, but then raced the entire 1994 season where jan absolutely dominated, winning 14 out of 18 races, beating senna’s record of 12 races won in a season.   

fun fact: jan has raced against christian horner, toto wolff and zak brown throughout his career.   

jan obviously has a lot of respect for ron dennis, but also kind of thinks he is a piece of shit (mai note: okay, maybe that’s me paraphrasing a bit, but honestly not very much...) and he faced a lot of pressure from ron during his brief time at mclaren.    

he believes that his incredibly successful season in f3 actually went against him. that car fit him so well and everything came so naturally to him, so he did not really learn anything from it. jan believes you learn more when you have to fight for it or when you fail.    

jan got into f1 as a reserve driver for mclaren but was later offered a 4-year deal with stewart in formula 1 and broke his contract with mclaren as he did not see ron dennis replacing either coulthard or häkkinen with him in the foreseeable future. at stewart, he was teammates with rubens barrichello and they were good friends, but jan admitted to underestimating rubens on track, which he says that he has learned from.    

stewart kept saying to jan they had a plan for him, the first two years of the plan was just about jan learning the ropes and beginning to score points. jan relied way too much on this plan, he was pretty naive during his f1 career and did not really understand the politics at the time. it was only afterwards he realised what had happened.  

slowly, his relationship with jackie stewart began to break down. and ironically, when he finally turned a point and got his first f1 points (despite it being within timeframe of the plan), he was sacked from the team just after.

after f1 

after he had been sacked, he wanted nothing to do with f1 and all the politics of the f1 world. even if he had been offered to drive for another f1 team, jan believes he would have said no. he even considered quitting racing altogether because he was just so broken down from the way he had been treated.  

he went to america because his manager told him to to get out of bed and get going again, he immediately loved it as he was welcomed with open arms and the car was fun to drive. and then he moved to america within the week. and we all know he went on to have a great career with many wins.  

jan says the formula 1 cars were the best cars he has driven, but he also really liked the cars in nascar. he compared nascar to a three-hour long barfight with furniture being thrown ― and he loved it! but of course, he also love sportscars. 

the magnussen family

jan has advised kevin but has mostly left him alone to carve out his own path in f1, only telling kevin what he did himself that didn’t work and so on, he has mostly been there just to support k-mag.   

he was worried about kevin joining mclaren under the leadership of ron dennis, but was impressed by how well k-mag dealt with him. as jan said “the f1 world is not a nice one, you will go places, but it’s not nice” and it’s clear ron dennis was one of the worst people in f1 at the time (mai note: if not of all time).   

jan has seen a change in kevin this season, he believes it’s because he has reconnected with being a racing driver last year, and not just a formula 1 driver, and found out that life is also good outside f1.  

when m*zepin got fired, jan asked kevin about returning to f1 if he got the chance and he said that kev immediately laughed as he said “hell no”, kevin was done with that chapter of his life. but then a week later, he calls jan and says “you’re not gonna believe this...” and they had a long conversation about the offer from haas. kevin was thinking things through, wondering about his family with all the travelling and his contracts with other teams, and jan told him he was proud of kev for thinking of all these things, but that he also knew kevin was going to do it anyway to which k-mag responded “yeah, i’m gonna do it” 😂  

jan talks about how le mans with kevin was one of the best moments of his life despite all the problems they faced with the car during it, he said that it was the first time that he held nothing back and was 100% honest with his teammate. they had a lot of fun comparing data and they could see that they were very alike in their driving style. despite being a bit unhappy about it, he admitted that kevin was faster than him. but he talked about how he learned a lot from kevin and that they work very differently because they have had very different racing educations ― and that kevin’s education from f1 is the better education.     

jan’s dad also did a bit of amateur racing, jan is professional racing driver, so is kevin and his young son, luca, is climbing the ranks in karting. despite never pushing kevin into racing, jan said that kev was pretty hard on him and told him not to push luca, being very protective of his little brother. so they just had fun with it, but luca has seemed to really stepped it up this year. jan said that he will let luca call the shots, but he will be there every step of the way, and he will even sell the house again to fund him if that is what it takes. as jan says “i have had a great life in this racing world, if luca can have a great life as well then i’ll support that.”

#jan magnussen #kevin magnussen #luca magnussen #themagnussencorner #long post

[mcgnussen]

kevin and mclaren - the story of how cruel f1 politics can be:

this will be a long post. in his book, kevin had a lot to say about mclaren - and not much of it good. actually it’s quite shocking how poorly he was treated by mclaren. but his mclaren “adventure” is a little tough since it’s covered in different chapters and with different timelines, but i will try to do my best to lay it out in chronological order. obviously i will not include everything from the book. if you want all the details, i’d recommend reading the book, alt eller intet (all or nothing) if you are able to.

mclaren academy (2008-2013) jan magnussen, kev’s dad, had a very short formula 1 career with mclaren, but they had many issues. ron dennis always said jan was probably the biggest talent since senna, but he did not have the discipline of a f1 driver (like he refused to quit smoking). this is the established connection kevin had with mclaren. when he was only a few years old, ron dennis sent him a birthday card that said “call me when you’re better than your dad” and then in his teenage years, he did call ron dennis. this eventually led to him being invited to the factory for a chat with martin whitmarsh, which led to him being accepted into the mclaren academy.

during his meeting with martin, he was immediately told of all his dad’s failures. martin said they told all the young drivers about jan, about how his vices ruined his f1 career. as kevin said, it was quite awkward to sit there and listen to someone saying all of that stuff about his dad - even if martin ended it by saying that jan was the greatest talent he had ever seen. even placing him above ayrton senna. but kevin was happy that the meeting ended with him getting a spot as a junior driver in mclaren’s academy as a 15-year old.

not long after, he moved to england to be close to the mclaren headquarters in woking. being in the academy was intense and mclaren was super controlling. kevin had to fill out a survey every day about how he felt, they had to do a lot of fitness tests and had to upload a picture of every meal to a profile, so mclaren could keep track of what they were eating. kevin thought it was stupid with that level of micromanagement. he saw it as a case as long as he was fit and performed well on track, everything else didn’t matter - but eventually he learned the game. he became good at the specific fitness tests, placing above those in better shape than him as he only focused on getting good at the tests. he boiled broccoli and took a picture of that before going down to buy a pizza now and then. he filled out his survey with the best possible answers every day. mental health? great. physical well-being? great. focus? great. he impressed everyone at mclaren, and when he was also the best out on the track of the junior drivers, they probably thought it was because he was so diligent with everything else, when in reality kevin was just sensible and a good racer.

his first mclaren season (2014) in 2013, martin whitmarsh used his contacts to get kevin the 2014 force india seat (now aston martin), which meant kevin could get to know the f1 world without all the pressure of driving for a top team (which mclaren believed themselves to be at the time). everything was taken care of except the signing of the contract, kevin waited and waited until suddenly ron dennis showed up, unhappy with the 2013 season and mclaren being on the decline, and told kevin he got the mclaren seat. martin whitmarsh had been fired, along with a lot of other mclaren people, and so had sergio perez, so now the seat belonged to kevin. of course, he was beyond excited at the time and called his mum in happy tears. he skipped the small-ish team and could drive for mclaren, his dream team. but now kevin believes that starting in force india would have been waaaaay better for him. 

mclaren did not want kevin to bring along family or friend to his debut race, they did not want him to get distracted. he basically just sat alone on the plane ride there. the only kind of coaching he was given before his first qualification was: “don’t fuck this up.” that is basically all they said to a 21-year old rookie. despite that, kevin went on to qualify fourth, ahead of button, and ended up finishing p2 in the race. when the race was over, he just went back to his hotel room and sat there all alone as mclaren had not allowed him to bring anyone and so he had no one to celebrate with.

but that was the only podium kevin would ever see. despite impressing everyone in melbourne, kevin was a rookie and he made rookie mistakes. kevin admits that he made too many mistakes during his first season and risked too much. but he also says in the book that he was stressed because the team believed they should be driving for the absolute top spots, but the car just could not do so, not even button could manage it. he thinks the only one who quickly realised they had no championship hope was jenson button, who then used his fifteen years of experience to race the best he could in hope others would fall away. kevin realised the bad position the team was in too late and so button beat him comfortably during the races. during his first season, kevin learned he had to be able to adapt. the goal could not always be to win the race as mclaren believed.

for the entirety of the second half of the 2014 season, jenson and kevin knew alonso would likely become a mclaren driver, which was very bad timing for kevin. after that, there was an intense competition between button and magnussen - and they basically told each other nothing in the briefings. in general, kevin was faster but button was smarter. so even when kevin outqualified him, button would more often than not end up in front of kevin during the race. he had fifteen years of experience, kevin did not. but despite things getting a little cool between them, kevin says button treated him with respect. this coupled with the frustration over the lack of good results made the 2014 season really difficult and stressful for kevin, who now also had to drive to keep his seat against an english world champion for an english team. the only thing kevin had was data. data that proved he was faster than button. in fact, mclaren promised kevin the 2015 seat if he could beat button in qualifying with same amount of time as hamilton had beaten button during his time in mclaren – and kevin did.

mclaren’s betrayal (2015) williams had shown interest in kevin during the 2014 season, and when kevin confronted mclaren with this as they took a long time deciding on whether it should be him or button who kept the mclaren seat, eric boullier (racing director) said: “it will be you, don’t look elsewhere.” even button was so sure that his time in f1 was over that he had a special helmet made for the last race of the season, but he never used it since the team didn’t make a decision after the season had ended. during the meeting where the board should decide whether to keep magnussen or button, 7 people voted for kevin, 2 for button – but those 2 were the most powerful, owning more than 50% of mclaren, and they were in a battle for power with ron dennis. they waited until ron had voted, and he voted for kevin, and then talked to each other in arabic and voted for button as the only ones. they did not care about whether it was kevin or jenson who kept the seat, they just wanted to ensure a defeat for ron dennis.

kevin was demoted to test/reserve driver and he was basically in a state of shock, but ron promised kevin he would be able to return for the 2016 season, maybe even the 2015 season if button didn’t do well. there was no role for kevin in the team, but he still got paid and ron dennis expected him to meet up every day for a few hours before going back to an empty hotel room as he had to go to all the races. he was not allowed to participate in any other motorsport, so he barely sat in a car for the season. they did not even allow him to use the simulator. as the time passed during the year, he had no car, and stoffel vandoorne won a lot of races in f2 and suddenly he was the golden child (despite the fact kevin had beaten him in tests). kevin found it difficult to deal with because he had no car, no drive to prove himself. looking back now, kevin is sure he had a depression in 2015. he partied too much and drank himself unconscious, he broke several bones during that year because he was super reckless and just did not care about anything really. he had a constant feeling of being unable to be within himself and did not take good care of himself. but everything turned around for the better when he met his wife in october 2015, she helped him get back on track again. on his birthday in 2015, he was fired from mclaren before getting the call from renault. 

and that’s it, that is some of the story about kevin’s time in mclaren. it’s honestly a miracle kevin did not burn their garage down, i would have. kevin basically did everything asked of him and he still lost his seat just because ron dennis was a control freak who made himself unpopular with some of the board members. i still can’t believe ron had the audacity to fire kevin on his actual birthday, it still makes me so damn mad. but i’m glad kevin got away from ron dennis’ mclaren, he deserved so much better anyway and he managed to stay in f1 on talent alone. 

#kevin magnussen #mclaren #mclaren f1 #f1 #mclaren f1 team #formula 1 #also kevin calls out people by name in this book #i love it so much #long post #depression tw #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

what kevin said in his book about himself and his childhood:

this post will be about some of the things kevin has said about his background and his personality. i think it’s very interesting and give some insight into why kevin is the way he is, both on and off track. once again, i won’t be revealing everything in the book since that’s not really cool, but i will highlight some of the things he mentioned.

for his first birthday, he was giving a kart without a motor by his uncle, who was a mechanic and had build all of jan’s karts. when kevin was two, they put a motor in it. the plan was for jan to be able to sit behind kevin and control the pedals, but kevin wanted to drive on his own. then his uncle tied a rope to the back of the kart, so he could slow kevin if he went too fast, but kevin was even faster than that and often ended up dragging his uncle behind him. they dropped the rope and from the age of 2 years old, kevin drove a kart on his own (watch baby kevin drive here: https://youtu.be/OsQ_WjdXhhE)  

kevin is extremely competitive and has been from a very young age. he hates losing, even if it’s just a board game, but he has grown up enough that he can internalise it without getting angry. he reveals in the book that jan is the same, but he still gets mad every time he loses.  

he was taught from the age of 4 by his uncle that “crashing” in karts was not dangerous, they did break exercises where kevin would basically crash and get bruised until he got it right. i personally think this defines kevin to this day. his driving is literally fearless. however, kevin says this same uncle was also very competitive and pushed kevin to the limit every single training session. he would sometimes hit kevin on the helmet if he didn’t think he did well enough, he was also quite verbally abusive. while kevin says that his uncle is a great guy and very sweet off the track, he does say that you should not pressure and punish kids that way. especially now he is a father, he just can’t understand how anyone can do that to children. he believes it’s better to encourage than berate.   

kevin had a difficult childhood. he was very loved by both his parents, but they did not have a lot of money. there were times where him and his mum had so little money that his mother could not afford to buy cheese after kevin ate it all (apparently kevin really likes cheese lmao). when he was very little, he only corresponded with his dad in england through fax since they could not afford the cost of an international phone call. of course, jan did get reasonably well off later, but as kevin only lived with him mum, he did not really get to enjoy that in his day-to-day life. him and his mum, britt, moved around all the time (the list of his home addresses in his childhood is two pages long, many of them in well-known low class areas) and his mother had troubling relationship with a man after jan and her broke up. of course, he doesn’t specify what that means exactly, but it is quite clear from the book that some sort of abuse towards his mother was involved.   

kevin did not really attend school at all. his only focus was karting. he only showed up to one exam - but he actually did pretty well, so he goes around telling everyone that he has a high average lmao. he did a lot of reckless things with his friends, one of which involved a car flipping around without kevin wearing a seatbelt. he only got out of it unscathed because his friend literally held him in place by throwing his arms around the front seat and kevin as the car rolled, which kevin says today was insane. he did a lot of reckless stuff with his friends, but never things that harmed others. he was obsessed with motorsports and he was practically depressed during the winter when there was no racing.   

surprisingly, kevin admits to being pretty shy. certain parts of f1, especially the media obligations, and the whole thing with signing contracts with teams is not easy for him. it does not come naturally to him and he doesn’t see himself as being charismatic. he is confident in his racing abilities, but he is not great at all the other stuff as that is not in his nature.  

kevin believes himself to be an aggressive driver, but not a dirty driver, and he thinks the whole situation with nico really caused him to gain that reputation. he says that afterwards, any drivers that were angry at him in the heat of the moment on their radio made it onto television, so f1 really wanted to push that narrative. generally, he doesn’t understand why some drivers take racing so personally. he sees the track as an arena where they are fighting but sees no reason why they should carry grudges off track. they are athletes, they get paid for doing their job and they all want to win – in kevin’s world, that is it.   

kevin thinks he would probably have done better in f1 if he was a better liar or if he had been from a higher class, since apparently some higher-ups in f1 finds him too “rough”, but he is who he is and he is proud of that. he also reveals in the book that he actually has a lot of respect for authority, but that he cannot pretend to like people he doesn’t like (this relates to his history with renault that i will share soon - and no, it’s not about jolyon palmer!). he believes that you need to treat everyone with the same amount of respect and kindness regardless of their place in the hierarchy. he wants to know the cleaning crew as well as he knows his boss.    

hilarious bonus story: after the confrontation between him and nico hulkenberg, nico refused to speak with him. kevin says they were once the only two people in an elevator going up 30 stories and nico did not say a single word to him, which kevin thought was quite hilarious and he could not help chuckling a little at the time. he says in the book they have not spoken since and he wrote the book in 2021, so it is confirmed that them talking to each other before the bahrain grand prix was literally the first time they have spoken since then. kevin forgave nico almost right away since he doesn’t carry grudges easily, but it was clear nico did not forgive him... until this year apparently!

that was a little bit of a mixed bag, but i hope everyone some insight into how kevin’s brain works and why he is how he is. i love that elevator story with nico hulkenberg, i would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall during that. imagine how awkward the long silence must have been!

EDIT: oh and also it’s very clear in the book that kevin loves children and wants like ten himself lmao, and he loves his daughter, mum and wife very much. we stan a man who cherish and appreciates the women in his life.

#kevin magnussen #nico hulkenberg #themagnussencorner #f1 #formula 1 #tw mention of possible domestic abuse #tw abuse

[mcgnussen]

kevin and renault - the break-up story:

this story is pretty short, but also pretty hilarious, and i was reminded of it because i have seen a lot of people talking about cyril. so here’s the story of kevin’s stint at renault, and more importantly, the way he “broke up” with them.

kevin had almost given up on getting a seat in f1 again, but then he was contacted by renault, who wanted him to be their first driver in the new team. the renault project was confusing, it kept falling through and then was back on and then fell through... but finally, it ended up with renault joining f1 in 2016 with kevin as their first driver. kev was super happy with getting a seat again and he was excited since renault was a factory team. they also told him he’d be the future of renault and made him a lot of fancy promises.

unfortunately for kevin, the car was shit. it was basically just an old lotus that had not been upgraded in two years. right from the bat, renault’s expectations for kevin were almost impossible. first of all, they wanted him to beat palmer with half a second every qualifying. in fact, kevin said in the book that the team talked a lot of shit about palmer and that made him uncomfortable. as kevin says, palmer was not a great driver, but he was very intelligent and diligent. so while there was no raw talent there, palmer could sometimes do quite well. and it is obvious that kevin respects him.

later on, renault refused to let kevin make any changes to the car to suit his driving style. they brought some upgrades that did not suit kevin, he wanted to revert the car back how it was before, but they forced him to drive a car he did not like or trusted. kevin crashed in spa because he had decided that palmer was not allowed to beat him. it was also the same weekend as those upgrades he did not like were introduced. kev gave it his all, and then too much, his car jumped, and he lost all downforce and crashed with 47g at eau rouge. he had the wind knocked out of him and he was in a lot of pain. everything below his feet was pulverised, had he been a bit taller then he would likely have lost his feet. he had trouble breathing and the doctor later admitted that kevin probably should have been driven to the medical centre in an ambulance. but kevin got through it and was ready for the next race.

while all of this was going on, kevin also had some troubles with the management of renault. cyril refused to greet him during race weekends. like he would just walk past him when kevin said hi. the two of them did not like each other. kevin thought cyril was a stuck-up snob and cyril apparently also had some problems with kevin. my guess is that k-mag was probably a little rough around the edges and maybe a little quiet. and as a dane, cyril definitely has an energy that seems to be like the polar opposite of the danish attitude. so it just seems they were too different. but i still think it’s fucking rude not to greet your driver. it’s not that hard to make a little effort.

anyway, kevin did not like the vibes at renault and it became obvious to him that they wanted either big drivers or french drivers on their team. he said that carlos sainz was often hanging out at the garage, so he knew that carlos would eventually join the team. and ocon was a reserve driver, but he was french and pretty respected, so kevin also knew he would soon get a seat. haas contacted kevin and asked about his contract situation - and he eventually signed with them because they wanted to give him a two-year contract and he liked how there was no bullshit in the haas team. renault had given him an offer, but only for one season and kevin knew that he was not in their future plans, so off to haas he went. 

a few days after kevin had signed with haas and told renault of his decision to reject their offer for 2017, he got a call from cyril where he told tevin that they had chosen palmer instead of him – despite people in renault begging him to stay and kevin having already made his decision. kev said to cyril: “i broke up with you first.” which is just HILARIOUS. he was pretty annoyed when the press release from renault made it out like he was fired. he told the truth to the press and made the joke about his seat even being offered to the pope, which prompted renault management (aka cyril) to threaten him with a lawsuit and prevent him from talking about the situation. yes, a lawsuit. i personally think cyril deserved being stabbed in the back by danny ric lmao.

kevin was sad to leave his crew, he was good friends with his mechanics. kevin usually has the best relationship with the mechanics in the paddock over pretty much everyone else. they are more like him personality wise. he thinks they are severely underrated and unappreciated, and he doubts that he could do their job for just one weekend. he thinks it is unfair that he has his little room, his fancy food while they are the ones who work the hardest. he is still friends with the mechanics from his previous teams - including renault.

#kevin magnussen #reanult f1 team #alpine f1 team #cyril abiteboul #themagnussencorner #i know cyril appreciated daniel but pls i don't want him back in the paddock

[mcgnussen]

debrief with kevin magnussen - episode 2 out of 3 (by viaplay):

the current state of affairs (filmed after the italian grand prix with six races to go)

at the first half of the season, the car was fast and the reason they did not score points every race was due to errors and bad luck, but now the car has lost its speed and that’s the main challenge   

kevin admits that the last few races that he has been behind mick and that it is frustrating. apparently, kev has been experimenting a lot more with the set-up to try and make up for the lack of speed, but says in the interview, he is going to backtrack and get back to where he is comfortable since he has not really found anything. due to the constant change of engineers, kevin has had the sole responsibility for the car set-up, which has not been optimal as he is obviously not an engineer.   

for kevin, it is super important that the car is stabil when he is going into the corners. when he was chasing a set-up with the most speed, he sacrificed some of that and he has learned that he struggle too much without having that stability. he says it is one of his weaknesses. 

kevin and his engineers 

he started with ed, then he got dominic in the middle of the season for three races, then mark for one race, then dominic again, and then mark for the rest of the season, so it has been quite messy but kevin said that’s just the way the cards were dealt, but obviously it has not made his job very easy (mai note: it has nothing to do with kevin by the way, ed and dom were both promised a different role at home at the factory before the season even started!)

the big update

the single big update the haas had during the season was a small but safe step forward, they got what they could out of the update pretty immediately. kevin says it was more important for guenther that the guarantee of the car getting a little better instead of taking the risk of either the car massively improving or getting worse. in 2019, haas did throw a lot of money at updates and it actually made the car worse, which is one of the reasons why gene wanted the team to be able to run itself without being solely dependent on his money. it is basically what forced haas to hire two rookies with loads of money, so guenther wanted to avoid that situation again.   

kevin says it is a good strategy to take a small but safe step forwards, they just need to have those kind of upgrades multiple times every season. he believes this will be possible with more money.

kevin and mick (head to head) 

kevin has always felt faster than mick in qualification, he has never really been worried and can explain away most of the times that mick beat him in quali with car issues or making a crucial mistake during the lap, but he admits that mick has been better than him during the races several times. they have recently learned that kevin’s driving style does not suit the car after the upgrade when it comes to the tyres. basically, kevin’s superpower of having great starts and being extremely quick the first few laps completely kills his rear tyres now. whereas mick is more steady throughout the race and gets more out of the tyres. this was a new development post upgrade, which obviously suited mick better and left kevin having to change his approach to races.    

kevin’s penalty in monza

during the start, kevin is caught behind two aston martins and a williams side by side on the track. there is no room for all three of them, so one car has to back off and that is latifi. kevin quickly realise this and then does a move to avoid latifi who he is nearing quickly. but bottas does not realise this and then drives into kevin and pushes him off the track. but kevin quickly rejoins the race and is now ahead of some of the cars in front of him, but they swiftly overtake him anyway. but he got a 5-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage. when asked about his penalty, kevin initially said it was his fault, but that was because he thought he had gotten the penalty for going beyond track limits three times. and there is not really anyone to blame for that. but when he is told exactly why he got the penalty, he could not understand it at all since he was pushed off the track and did not really gain any advantage. the contact with bottas even broke his diffuser, so his car was even broken afterwards. he did criticise bottas for being too focused on him and not latifi. like he says, you have to not just watch the car in front of you, but you have to look two cars ahead and bottas failed to do that. when asked about the penalty, kevin said that he was used to the fia making strange decisions by now.

singapore and brasil

the next race at the time was singapore and kevin was a bit daunted by it, admitting that the race is the toughest of the season due to the heat and the humidity. he even said there were races there, and some other places, where he does not remember the last half of it because of dehydration. but he also said that singapore is the race everyone thinks about when they need some extra motivation when working out, they know they have to be in great shape to get through it.  

hilariously kevin admits that interlagos is not really his cup of tea as he thinks the corners are too long. he does think it’s a pretty fun track and he loves the history, but he likes tracks that are more focused on the attack. he likes “v corners” more than “u corners” where you can outbreak others. the track does not really suit his driving style. (mai note: obviously, he said all of this before getting pole there, so i am sure his opinion has probably changed quite a lot now lmao! but it is interesting that kevin managed to get pole on a track that he does not think suit him, i think that’s very impressive)     

#kevin magnussen #haas f1 team #formula 1 #f1 #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

debrief with kevin magnussen - episode 1 out of 3 (by viaplay):

the start of the season

kevin quickly realised the car was pretty good at the start of the season, the car had a good balance and was easy to drive and during quali in bahrain then he also saw proof that the car was also fast.   

he believed that he was best during the start of the season because the car was good, better than most of the midfield, and he was relaxed. but then haas was overtaken by other teams who developed faster cars and kev confessed to maybe “over driving” the car a bit. basically he was a bit frustrated that the car was failing him, so he tried to overcompensate in other areas to try and get some of that speed back and it did not work out for him.  

in hungary kevin was pitted for mediums... but ended up with hards due to a mistake from the team. k-mag said this is what happens in small team. in big teams, the mechanics who work during the race is only trained for that and there are two teams of mechanics, so they can tag team and focus on less jobs. but in haas, the mechanics also work on the car between the races. if they spent their time training, there would be no one to work on the car. as kevin says there is nothing wrong with the skills of the mechanics, it’s all due to being the smallest team on the grid.

the 2022 cars

during the first half of the season, the drivers used porpoising as a way to attack since they knew the cars affected by it would have a hard time breaking late, so those who suffered with it basically had a target on their backs during specific parts of the track.   

kevin is a big fan of the new regulations and believes they have worked well. the cars are able to follow each other closely and they can battle much more. he compares it to go-karts and says it is much more fun now.

kevin’s starts

after quali kevin immediately begin to study the best lines through turn 1 of the race, he even watch videos from past seasons to study tendencies. he prioritise getting the best line, but also has a plan b if he is boxed in. he does not only have eyes on the car in front of him, but the car in front of both of them. because when a car is stuck behind another, it will always lose a bit of grip and so he looks for opportunities to overtake knowing that. he also always look for clean air despite deviating from the race line, the clean air can help set up an attack.   

he has a setting called ‘first lap attack’ and basically everything is turned up to max and the break balance is turned down 2,5%, so he can brake as late as possible. he sets it up to combat dirty air. basically he makes the car as fast, high grip and “free” as possible. kevin has a hunch that he is the only driver who has these settings during the first lap, he is unsure why that is. k-mag said the start is always a game of “is he going to have good grip here or not?” and the aim is to always be the one to find the most grip.

contact with lewis

talking about his first laps incidents, kevin said it was not always due to him being aggressive. he highlights the contact with hamilton in canada as an example, saying this: “we misunderstood each other. i am side by side with him in a turn, he thought i was on the attack and then blocked my line and drove me onto the edge of the grass (mai disclaimer: kevin is not saying lewis did anything wrong, he is just saying lewis drove defensively), but i was never planning on attacking him as there was no point in me fighting with a mercedes. i don’t believe many other drivers would have driven like that in that specific situation.” one of the hosts on the debrief pointed out that lewis knows that kevin is an aggressive driver, which k-mag did agree with, but also said once again that he was never intending to go into that battle as he did not want to risk his high position on the grid. and i think this is extremely interesting because this is exactly what many people have criticised k-mag for (and what i adore him for), they have said kevin picked fights that he did not need to pick, but now k-mag is saying this. he has said this about lewis a couple of times, saying that “he needs more room than others”, but without it being a criticism. kevin personally believes that it was due to lewis not being used to drive in the midfield where these situations happen all the time. he is used to be in the front where these situations does not happen as often. but k-mag still classified it as a racing incident. 

#kevin magnussen #haas f1 team #formula 1 #f1 #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

hi to all my followers (all 142 of you now which is wild!) and k-mag tag lurkers 👋

so we have reached the end of the 2022 season, it has been a true rollercoaster for us k-mag fans! from the lows of meatball flags to the highs of pole positions (!!!) and battling with mercedes at the beginning of the season. during december, i will make a post to recap kev’s whole season as best i can remember. if you want to contribute to this, you can send me asks or submit posts about what you remember from kevin during particular races, the good and the bad. and if you do send me a few asks then please be sure to give me a name or send non-anon asks from your blog, so i can thank you for your contribution and credit you properly! of course, you can still send me anons if you prefer.

i will remain active on this blog and give you all the kevin updates i can get my hands on - particularly when it comes to gulf 12 hours! i am very excited to see kevin and jan racing together again. but after that, the blog might get a bit slow. the problem is that when kevin is not racing then his social media presence basically dies, so sadly we probably will not be hearing a lot from him until the start of the 2023 season. i will randomly reblog some things from this season tho, so kev will hopefully stay on your dash.

however, i have decided to do two new things during the off season. kevin has done two 1-hour interviews during this season, and will soon do a third, so i will be signing up for danish viaplay to watch those and make posts about the best bits from each interview. they are all in danish, so sadly i cannot just record them and share them with you all. besides that, i will also be watching a few of his old races, the best ones, and do a recap of them because i will miss f1 and watching old races back makes me happy. i might also do an in-depth analysis of his pole position from brasil. the bits from the long interviews and the race recaps will be tagged with #themagnussencorner. and if you end up missing kev content, i recommend you go through that tag and read some of my old posts! 

thank you all for all the reblogs, questions, comments and general support you have all given me this season. it has been absolutely amazing. i genuinely just made this blog so i could post random kev things, and i thought maybe i’d find a couple of other kevin fans, but i’ve found so many more than i thought possible! back in the day, it could sometimes feel quite lonely to be a k-mag stan, so i’m pleased to find so many of you. i think we have a nice lil community on here and it’s a pleasure to share the space with you all, new and old kev fans alike ❤️

#kevin magnussen

[mcgnussen]

reasons why you should respect k-mag:

jan magnussen was 19 years old when kevin was born and his mother, britt, was only 17 years old. his dad had just moved to england to race when she found out that she was pregnant. while i think his parents are wonderful, he wasn’t born into the easiest situation. he grew up with not a lot of money.  

kevin has been driving since he was 2 years old, watch this clip.  

despite his dad being away a lot, kevin really looked up to him. he has said it was tough for the whole family when his dad was left without a drive after being released from his formula 1 team and that jan was basically shunned in the racing world for a while.  

kevin was bullied by the others karting racers and especially their dads because they saw jan magnussen as a failure. while jan magnussen is pretty successful now, it took quite a while for him to be branded as a success, most people just focused on the fact he had not done well in f1.  

he struggled in school and was laughed at when his only life plans were that he wanted to win the formula 1 wdc one day.   

unfortunately, kevin has been through quite a lot at a young age. when he was 16 years old, his mum got sick with ovary cancer that spread throughout her body, and it looked like she would not survive. by some medical miracle she did. but at 17 years old, his uncle, who kevin was very close with, committed suicide. so basically in the space of less than two years, he almost lost his mum, and had to watch her be really sick, and then he lost his uncle, who had been like a second father to him, in tragic circumstances.   

throughout his life, kevin struggled getting sponsorships. despite his dad being a professional racing driver, jan was not rich enough to pay the way for his son. it became so bad that a few years before his formula 1 debut, kevin was working as a factory welder to try and make enough money to keep racing, thinking his racing career was already over. he only got sponsored by jack & jones after he had already gotten into formula 1, so he’s so far removed from being a money driver as one can be. he has publicly refused to ever pay for his formula 1 seat, he wants to be paid and chosen based on his skills.  

he was fired by mclaren after falling victim to the power battle within the team and after being promised a seat for 2015. basically most of the board wanted to retain him instead of jenson button, but the richest wanted to keep button and so in the power struggle, it was kevin who became their reserve driver. and then a year later he was fired... ON HIS BIRTHDAY!   

he had a miserable season at renault despite being thankful for them bringing him back into formula 1. he was offered a seat for the 2017 season but chose to accept an offer from haas because he wanted to get away from the toxic situation at renault, where some members of the leadership did not even want to greet him on race weekends. renault did not even publicly say they had offered him the seat instead of palmer.  

kevin came alive at haas, using a season to get used to the team, and then delivering a good 2018 season. then it went downhill from there until he ultimately lost his seat to make room for m*zepin and his daddy’s dirty money.  

he was offered a williams seat for 2021 to replace george russell. yes, you heard that right. williams wanted to kick russell out of formula 1. kevin declined since he did not want to drive another slow car and he felt like it was very sketchy of williams to get rid of george, who kevin believed to be a talented driver deserving of his seat in f1.  

he married a school teacher, an “ordinary” woman and not a supermodel, and they have a daughter, laura, who was born 7 weeks too early. she was in the nicu for quite a while, but luckily she seems to have no issues (as far as we know, and if there are some then that’s private).   

kevin has always been well liked by all the crews he has worked with - especially the renault and haas crews. he is known for being honest, down to earth and easy to work with. watch this video of him returning to haas, you can basically see their eyes light up.  

k-mag is known to be an aggressive racer, which he has confirmed he is, but he sees himself as hard but fair. he rarely complains about other drivers. he is passionate and always gives it 100%. kevin is confused by the bad boy reputation he had in f1, and revealed it was even a joke within the haas team. i think people forget kevin has basically always been racing for p8 to p10, he has never been in a truly competitive car, and so maybe he raced with his elbows out a lot because that was his only chance of getting points.     

all his teammates have called him extremely fast and adaptable in various variations. kevin does not need the car to be perfect to do well in a race.    

k-mag is without a doubt the best starter in f1. it is rare for him to lose positions on the first lap. we have seen starters where he has overtaken four or five cars within the first lap, cars that have been faster than his own at the time.  

he did quite well in his season away from formula 1, trying out different things to see what suited him. when guenther called and offered him the seat, kevin said yes purely based on his gut feeling. he knew that he was saying goodbye to a potential championship to drive a haas car that no one expected much from.    

without any physical f1 training (mainly the neck), without having ever driven the 2022 car, not even in simulator, kevin got to bahrain and managed to get a few hours in of testing before he qualified p7 (while having an issue with the car) and getting p5 in the race. 

i’m very happy to finally see he is getting the recognition he deserves. i adore that kevin seems to have freed himself from all the pressure and the bullshit he endured during his time in f1, and is now just enjoying it. he really deserves a chance at one of the big teams, i hope he gets at least one season to prove what he can really do with a car that could win. 

#kevin magnussen #formula 1 #formula one #f1 #k-mag #cancer tw #suicide tw #themagnussencorner

[mcgnussen]

NOTES FROM THE PODCAST ‘F1: BEYOND THE GRID’ EPISODE WITH KEVIN

1. the story and feelings about his comeback

kevin, as everyone else, did not even think himself as an option to replace m*zepin. despite reading that m*zepin had lost his drive, he did not contact guenther or anyone else at haas to say he was interested - even when people from the paddock started messaging him and asking him if he was coming back.   

kevin confirmed that he understood the team’s decision in 2020 and that he was told that it was purely a financial decision. he did not take it personally and left the team on good terms with everyone in haas. he also mentions that he was treated very well in the team throughout the years, he even calls the haas team his home in f1.   

k-mag did say yes immediately to guenther, but told him that he had things he needed to sort out before the contract could be signed. the first thing kevin did was call louise, his wife, and despite her feeling worried about how much he would be away, she said he had to do it. it was very important to him that his wife was on board since he’s a dad and husband now and not just a racing driver.

2. talking about his family

kevin talked a lot about his daughter, laura, generally. but he talked about how sad he had felt that f1 and his daughter never overlapped since she was born january 2021 and he believed that 2020 was his last season. he talked about getting emotional seeing his daughter in the back of the garage in the mirror during his seat fitting. then she really wanted to get in the car with him, so she got in and pressed all the buttons on his steering wheel.  

he is really happy that he got last year “off” as he calls it since he was able to spend a lot of time with laura and he says that he would not have traded it for anything. so the timing of losing his seat and then getting it back was actually perfect.     

because his dad is not as busy anymore with racing, kevin believes that he will come to quite a lot of races. he said jan was very excited when he heard about kevin’s f1 return and is watching every session now that he has the opportunity.  

3. talking about the car and his fitness level

he quickly got a good feeling about the car, it was predictable and easy to drive and definitely fast. he is glad that with his neck that he’s not in one of the old cars, saying this one is slower in the corners. he confirmed the 2022 cars require a slightly different driving style, but he is totally okay with that and that it is not a big change.  

kevin believes that it will take him two more months of daily training to be where he should be physically. he did work out last year, but a lot less than when he was a f1 driver. he said that fitness is important in all racing and that it gives you those extra percent. but that driving sport cars and training a little less made him lose his strong neck quickly.  

during qualification in saudi arabia, a nerve in kevin’s neck started to spasm and he physically could not hold his head up, it was just flapping around and it was very painful. he believes they could have started p5 if his neck had been stronger, which he believes would also have meant a better race result. 

4. on the team and mick schumacher 

kevin really likes mick. he says he is a super nice guy and down to earth, very polite and liked by everyone. kevin appreciates that mick is open and honest and not too proud to ask questions. he thinks that mick really deserves his place in f1 even if his last name had not been schumacher, and that mick has done more than enough to prove he belongs in f1 by winning both f2 and f3.   

he is aware that he is seen as the team leader, but he says that he doesn’t really see himself as that. he just wants to do his best for the team and doesn’t expect any special treatment just because he is the most experienced of the two drivers. kevin also points out that mick is intelligent, so his feedback is good and the team also listen to mick, of course.   

he is very open with mick and doesn’t hold anything back, which is the first time kevin has felt comfortable being 100% honest with his teammate. he sees it as a case where if he helps out mick, he helps the team, and that’s good for kevin too. and if his help does give mick what he needs to pass k-mag then kevin can learn from him and raise his own level.

5. on his personal growth

he feels as if his year away were actually ten years and then when he got back in the car, it felt like he had not really been away. he contributes a lot of his growth to everything that has happened outside the track. after becoming a father, his family is now the most important thing in his life. he admits that before his happiness was determined by how well he was doing in f1, but now that is not the case.  

kevin believes that losing his seat in f1 was good for him, he survived walking away from f1 despite the fact that it had been the most important thing in his life for so long, and now he sees everything as a bonus, which means he can enjoy himself more as he is not scared of not being in f1 anymore. during the year away, he was able to look back at his time in f1 and be grateful rather than sad of not driving a f1 car anymore. and he got a new appreciation for the sport watching it as a fan and not experiencing it as a driver.  

6. talking about IMSA and driving alongside his dad

one of his dreams was also to drive the iconic tracks his dad has driven like daytona, so he is happy that he got that experience. he also says that it meant he and his dad, jan magnussen, could talk about racing in a different way and that he could actually give kevin technical advice.    

he also talked about how much a privilege it was to drive le mans with his dad and how crazy a place it was to have a father-son weekend. kevin also talked about how interesting it was to see a new side to jan because kevin knows him so well as his dad, but he got to see him as a racing driver and how fun it was to see all the data and compare and be racing nerds together.  

7. on the future 

kevin is dreaming about a podium but does not expect it since haas does not got the pace to beat the three big teams on pace alone, but if haas can be best of the rest then he says it as a possibility and admits he is thinking about it quite a lot.  

he came to peace with the fact he was not going be a f1 wdc ever last year, but it is still his biggest dream, the ultimate goal, and he is excited for it to be a somewhat realistic dream again.   

#kevin magnussen #mick schumacher #formula 1 #f1 #haas f1 team #formula one #themagnussencorner