Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Jan Magnussen is a Danish racing driver. He currently drives for the Haas F1 Team. Magnussen came up through the McLaren Formula One team’s Young Driver Programme. He is the son of four-time Le Mans GT class winner, GM factory driver and former Formula One driver Jan Magnusen. In 2011 Magnussen made his debut at the Macau Grand Prix.

About Kevin Magnussen in brief

Summary Kevin MagnussenKevin Jan Magnussen is a Danish racing driver. He currently drives for the Haas F1 Team. Magnussen came up through the McLaren Formula One team’s Young Driver Programme. He drove for McLaren in the 2014 Formula One World Championship, before a stint with Renault in 2016. He has driven for Haas since 2017 and is due to leave the team at the end of the 2020 season. He will move to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2021 driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of four-time Le Mans GT class winner, GM factory driver and former Formula One driver Jan Magnusen. In 2011 Magnussen made his debut at the Macau Grand Prix. He placed 7th in qualifying, but was forced to start from the back of the grid in the qualification race after ignoring yellow flags. In the race itself, Magnussen avoided crashing at the start – after his car encountered oversteer through wheelspin – and after passing Lewis Hamilton’s ailing Mercedes in the early stages. He maintained position to take a third-place finish; he finished 2. 2 seconds behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. He became the second Danish driver, after his father Jan, who was sixth at the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix – to take the first points-scoring finish, since the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996. In 2013 Magnussen won the Formula Renault 3. 5 Series title, 60 points clear of runner-up Stoffel Vandoorne.

He also competed in the Masters of Formula 3 race at Zandvoort, finishing 3rd. In 2012 Magnussen finished the opening race at Motorland Aragón in 2nd place, and took pole position in both races at Spa-Francorchamps, converting the second into a race victory. He finished the season in 7th place in the championship. He moved to DAMS alongside Norman Nato for 2013, moving to DAMs for 2014. In 2014 Magnussen claimed five victories, eight other podium places and eight pole positions. He was promoted to second place in Austria and Great Britain – where he had fifth-place finishes in junior formulae– before a promotion to F1. In 2015 Magnussen recorded eleven points- scoring finishes, although the majority of his finishes were ninth-place or tenth-place. He had his first experience of the McLaren MP4-27 Formula One car on track at the Abu Dhabi Young Driver test in 2012. In line with a new rule introduced in Formula One for the 2014 season, where drivers picked a car number that they would use during their career – Magnussen raced with number 20 as this was the number he had on his DAMS car in 2013 when he won the F3 championship. In 2016 Magnussen replaced Sergio Pérez in the McLaren team’s F1 team’s young driver programme. He made his F1 debut in Australia, finishing 4th in the first race in Melbourne. In 2009 Magnussen moved up to Formula Renault 2. 0 with Motopark Academy.