F1 News

Magnussen on aggressive driving: Would be different if I was fighting for title

Magnussen on aggressive driving: "Would be different if I was fighting for title"

01-02-2019 12:22
1
Author profile picture

Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen has been accused of driving too aggressively a lot during the course of last season, but the Dane revealed he wouldn't be doing this if he was fighting at the top of the grid instead of in midfield.

K-Mag impressively finished ninth in the championship for Haas in 2018 as the team itself finished fifth in the constructors' championship. Although he's happy with the way things are going at the American team, Magnussen still has greater ambitions.

"If you'd told me that as a kid, 'Kevin, one day you'll be happy with seventh', I'd have killed myself!" the Dane joked to ESPN.

"But that is the situation. It's just Formula One as it is in these days, unless you're in one of the top three teams you can forget about podiums and wins.

"That's a bit sad. We take pleasure in the races where we feel we've done the best we could. Hopefully one day we can celebrate a bit more properly if one day we can get on the podium or a win, who knows."

Fernando Alonso among other drivers has been very vocal about Magnussen's driving, which has been dubbed as dangerous, reckless and too aggressive. Magnussen explains how his style of driving was born.

"I try and make the most out of the situation I'm in. When you're fighting around those top ten places, sometimes you are in a situation where you have nothing to lose. If you are fighting for a championship, you're driving for Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull, you're guaranteed to be in the top six. You will always score points so you might as well take P6 instead of risking everything for P5.

"Whereas if you're in the midfield and you're P10 and you're being overtaken, you're screwed anyway, and it forces you to take a lot more risk. I think that's the difference. I'd be driving a lot differently if I was if I was fighting for the championship.

"I have fought for championships before [in junior categories] and [in those scenarios] I was driving differently. But that's just the way it is, where we are."