Kevin Magnussen says he has no fear of an “afterlife” outside Formula 1 should he fail to land a seat for 2025.
On Thursday Haas officially confirmed that Magnussen won’t be staying with the team next season, with Esteban Ocon expected to replace him.
Magnussen is still working to find an F1 seat for 2025. However, he says if he can’t stay, his experience during his year out in 2021 – when he focussed on sportscar racing in North America – taught him that he can continue his racing career elsewhere.
“In ’21, I was out of F1, but I was racing in IMSA,” he said. “It was actually quite a busy schedule, going to America 11 or 12 times during the year. It wasn’t like a quiet year, but it was at least a very different year.
“You have to remember my whole life, since I was a little kid, was about getting to F1, and then I had ten years in the sport. And so it was interesting and kind of exciting to see a different side of life in ’21. And it wasn’t frightening. It was actually very positive and fun.
“So I think that changed my mindset in terms of I had a lot of fear before that of losing F1, because I didn’t know what was on the outside. And that kind of showed me – hold on to F1 as long as you can, but don’t fear the outside. The afterlife is going to be good.”
He added: “Of course, F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, but I’ve always been of the opinion that racing outside F1 is also awesome.
“I think while you have a chance to be here, it is the top of motorsport. I’ve had a few chances, actually, but you don’t get a chance every day to race it in F1. So it’s natural that everyone tries to stay here.”
Magnussen still optimistic about 2025 F1 options
Magnussen is adamant that he still has a chance to secure a seat in 2025.
“I hope I can stay in F1,” he said. “There are some interesting seats available. I think all the teams by now people are interesting, the whole bunch. You can look at any team and say they might be a top-five team next year.
“Everyone’s so tight together that it feels like there’s still interesting opportunities, although Haas is in a good position right now. You could say, okay, it’s a pity because they’re doing so well right now, but everything could change net year, one of the other seats could be more competitive. You never know.”
Magnussen admitted he would like to have stayed with Haas to see it make progress in the future.
“I’ve been with this team it feels from the very beginning of Haas’s time in F1, and I’m very much a part of the family,” he said.
“It’s going to be strange to leave the team at the end of the year, but everything comes to an end. It’s still quite early in the season, but Haas have gone ahead and wants to secure the drivers for next year early enough.
“I think had I continued, it would have been cool to see the fruits of the momentum that’s been built here recently. That would have been interesting.
“But I think there’s also other interesting projects out there. And there’s still seats available in F1 that could be interesting.
“And of course, Carlos [Sainz] is still holding up all that process, but eventually, it’s going to move. So right now, I think the best thing is just to focus on doing good races and then being in contention for these seats available, and things will fall into place eventually.”
Regarding the driver market bottleneck caused by Sainz, he said:
“It’s natural, right? You have a race-winning Ferrari drive, suddenly available, and actually available only to kind of the bottom teams. So they’re obviously seeing a big opportunity, and that makes sense.”
“He’s the big name available right now. All the teams that have available seats are trying to secure him. I think, eventually, some of the teams will become impatient. He can’t keep holding it up. I’m sure he won’t.
“He’s going to make the decision that is best for him. He’s rightly so, considering very carefully where he’s going, not that I talked to him about it. But I can imagine that’s the situation. So when that lands, then all the rest will pretty quickly sort itself out.”
Magnussen not interested in reserve driver role
While Ayao Komatsu has suggested that Magnussen may still have a role at Haas, the Dane doesn’t see being a reserve as something he’d like to do.
“If I won’t be racing F1 next season, absolutely. I’ll definitely look at that kind of role, advisory or however that they see fit,” he said.
“I’ve been with this team for many years now. I know the operation very well, I have a lot of experience in F1. So it would be good to keep making use of that instead of just leaving F1 too early.
“I don’t think I would be interested in a reserve driver role. If I’m able to take some kind of role with Haas. It means that I didn’t land a seat in F1, of course. And in that case, I think I’d call it a day in F1.
“I wouldn’t want to just go to every race, and I’d want to focus on other things that would be exciting and fulfilling for me. I think being a reserve driver waiting around for someone to break his leg, I don’t think that’s very exciting!”
