Danish driver Kevin Magnussen, currently competes for the Haas F1 Team in Formula One. He is the son of Jan Magnussen, a former Formula One driver and four-time winner of Le Mans.
| Nationality | Danish |
|---|---|
| Born | Kevin Jan Magnussen 5 October 1992 Roskilde, Denmark |
Having been a part of the McLaren team’s Young Driver Programme, Magnussen drove for McLaren in the 2014 Formula One World Championship, joining the team as a replacement for Sergio Perez. As per the new rule for that season, each driver had to select a car number for their entire Formula One career, and Magnussen chose number 20, which he had used when winning the Formula Renault 3.5 championship in 2013 while driving for DAMS.
He performed exceptionally well during pre-season testing in Jerez and Bahrain, leading the timesheets on both occasions. In his debut race in Australia, he secured a fourth place on the grid. Despite encountering oversteer at the start, he managed to avoid a crash and overtook Hamilton’s struggling Mercedes in the races early stages. Magnussen then held his position to finish in third place, just 2.2 seconds behind the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. With a third-place finish, Magnussen made F1 history as the first Danish driver to podium in Formula One and the first debutant since Hamilton in 2007 to finish on the podium in his first Grand Prix.
After a stint with McLaren, Magnussen signed with Renault in 2016, lasting one season. Then, from 2017 through to the end of the 2020 season, he raced for Haas. After leaving the team at the end of 2020 Magnussen took a break from the sport but was welcomed back by the team in 2022, inking a new multi-year contract to rejoin Haas and the F1 grid, replacing the outgoing Nikita Mazepin. The same year, he secured his maiden pole position at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
He retained his seat for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. In 2024, he became the first driver since former teammate Romain Grosjean in 2012 to receive a race ban, which he received after the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.
Magnussen is set to leave at Haas at the end of the 2024 season.
Outside of Formula One, Magnussen has competed in the 2021 and 2022 seasons of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, one round of the IndyCar Series in 2021 for Arrow McLaren, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021 for High-Class Racing.
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