Kevin Magnussen: 'F1 was hopeless, now I'm finally racing to win'

“At some races, we were right at the back – P18. You have a whole race to go and you just know you need 17 cars to not finish for this to be a good result – it’s just hopeless!

“Sometimes that can be really daunting. There are good races as well. But even the good races, after finishing in P5 or getting some solid points, I just wasn’t super excited about it. At the end of the day, it’s still not a win, so it’s not the right feeling. I’m not here to do a job, I’m here to race and have fun doing it.”

Midway through the 2020 F1 season, it became increasingly apparent that there would be no seat for Magnussen on the 2021 grid and the Dane found himself looking to one of the biggest racing outfits on more distant shores.

“I always had a dream to race with Chip Ganassi in IndyCar. I was trying to do IndyCar with him [in 2021], but that didn’t happen for various reasons.

“But the talks were good, and then suddenly this opportunity came up with Cadillac and IMSA. I thought, since I couldn’t do IndyCar, that would be a really good opportunity.

And so six weeks after calling time on his F1 career, Magnussen found himself in Florida, preparing to race for Ganassi’s crack DPi squad at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. He had none other than five-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon for his team-mate, along with endurance veteran Renger van der Zander.

Their no1 car was on the pace straightaway in practice, before Magnussen stole the show in the qualifying race, leading early on.

How did it feel to be fighting at the front again?

“It made me very happy. I’ve missed it – it just feels right. Fighting for victories is why I do what I do, it’s why I’m a racing driver, why I’m a sports person, it’s why I got to where I am – because I like winning.

It went uphill from there. After eventually starting Daytona proper in seventh, the race came down to the wire.

Magnussen’s stablemate van der Zander, now in 2nd place, was closing in leader Filipe Albuquerque of Wayne Taylor Racing as the race reached its conclusion. After 24 hours, with just minutes left on the clock, the win was in Magnussen and co’s grasp. He was in no doubt of what he thought the outcome would be.

“I really thought Renger had what it took to be able to get past the Acura,” he says. “You’re watching and you see he caught up by like 20 seconds and so. He did an amazing job and he had so much momentum.”

It was not to be. With seven minutes to go, the Ganassi Cadillac suffered a puncture on the banking. As the DPi prototype slowly made its way back to the pits, rear wing wobbling indignantly as it was lashed by a flailing tyre canvas, all hopes of an incredible debut victory were dashed.

“It was a really big, sad moment when it happened,” says Magnussen. “He certainly had the speed for it. When he came in, it was a big blow. and I think he would have got past if it wasn’t for the puncture.

He’s still got the rest of the season to find that winning feeling again, however, and he’ll be smiling as he does it.

However, despite disillusionment setting in with the grand prix world, both with cars, the racing and the atmosphere, Magnussen says this didn’t put him off continuing his racing career. In fact, quite the opposite, it led to a moment of positive clarity.

“I just felt like I needed to… I almost felt the love grow for racing,” he says. “I realised that I just need to be racing, that’s what really makes me happy.

That need for speed has led to another new dawn in Magnussen’s career, as on Monday he was announced as a Peugeot driver for the French marque’s Le Mans Hypercar assault in 2022.

Magnussen said winning at La Sarthe has always been an ambition of his, particularly after seeing his father Jan have such success on the endurance circuit, both in America and Le Mans, following a stuttering F1 career.

“I feel like we’re able talk about the same thing now, and we understand each other a little more,” he says. “My years in F1 compared to his years in F1, things have moved on massively, it’s a very different sport.

“The F1 sport that I experienced compared to what he experienced, the cars are different, the teams work in different ways, and the whole thing is different. So now, his experiences [in endurance] are a little more recent, and up to date. We can actually support each other – he’s been very helpful so far.”

Magnussen says his father’s varied and versatile career is something which he wanted to emulate himself.

“I guess that’s only natural. My dad has been racing everything. F1, IndyCar, DTM, NASCAR, he’s done a bit of rallying. He’s a real old school racer.” Magnussen comments.

“Growing up as a kid and looking up to my dad, seeing him do all these different things, be good at it and have a great time with it – that inspires me to try and go do it myself.

“The drivers that I look up to from the past…Stirling Moss wasn’t just an F1 driver, he did everything. He did 80 or 100 races a year. That’s the people I can see myself as, I can relate to that.”

Magnussen is savouring the notion of being able to win across different categories, to truly diversify his racing skills.

“It would be very sad if I had spent my whole career, finished up as a 38 year old, having done 15 seasons of F1 and not having won anything,” he says. “I would be a little bit disappointed with that. So I think, in a way, it [winning in different categories] makes you a more complete driver, compared to not winning in F1. And I think, to win in F1 you need a lot of luck as well. I think there’s a lot of drivers that are able to win in F1, they just won’t get the chance.”

Magnussen still sees himself in IndyCar one day, perhaps after he’s had a fair crack at endurance racing.

“I’m 28 years old, so it doesn’t matter which I do first. I can have a couple of years in endurance racing and try to be successful there. Then, if I get a chance in the future, I could do IndyCar, why not? That’d be great. So I hope that happens, but we’ll see.

Unlike his former team-mate and IndyCar newbie Romain Grosjean, who has expressed reticence towards oval racing and will make his IndyCar debut on just road and street courses, Magnussen is desperate to be let loose on the superspeedways.

“Ovals are something I’ve always wanted to try, just going 230 miles an hour – I feel like it’s exciting. The Indy 500 is a race that I just need to be doing one day. “

If anything, the chance to just compete fairly in single-seaters is Magnussen’s greatest motivation.

“The fact that everyone has the same car – the best racing times I’ve had was in F3 and World Series by Renault,” Magnussen remembers. “It was super competitive, everyone had a chance, it was just the best driver on his day that won the race.

“I feel like IndyCar is like that, but just on a higher level, one of the top, top levels of motorsport. It has a lot of appeal to be super competitive. If you look at the lap times, the difference from pole position down to P10, it’s always just a couple of tenths. It’s competitive, it’s tough, it’s very exciting.”

As the one sun sets in Kevin Magnussen’s career, another one rises. Wherever the search for excitement takes him, K-Mag is just getting started.