Magnussen: "That's not a real goal when you're a real winner"

After six seasons Kevin Magnussen's Formula 1 career is over. The Danish driver started very promisingly at McLaren but never really managed to break through in the pinnacle of motorsport. Magnussen has been reflecting on his F1 career and admitted that sometimes just scoring points wasn't exciting.

Promising debut year

Magnussen's Formula 1 career started in 2014 at McLaren, where he was be on the podium straight away in his debut race. However, his second place in Australia was also his final podium finish. After a season as a reserve driver in 2015, Magnussen left for Renault. From 2017 he spent his last four seasons at Haas F1. In 2018 he had his best season finishing in ninth place in the championship.

Not so exciting anymore

Over the last two years, however, Haas has been sinking further down the field, scoring fewer and fewer points. In 2020, they only scored one point. "But that's not a real goal when you're a real winner. That doesn't satisfy you," the Dane said to Motorsport-Total.com. Magnussen even found it boring. "After a while, even points are not so exciting when you can't win races.”

What bothered Magnussen most is that he was unable to make a big impact given the poor performance of the car. "Sure, once in a thousand times someone can win without the best car, but then that's luck and you need extreme circumstances for that. You can't just go out and make the difference yourself. It's impossible."

Next step

Magnussen is therefore not grieving about a departure from Formula 1. "I'm looking forward to what lies ahead rather than being sad not to be in Formula One anymore.” Magnussen will be driving for Ganassi in the IMSA series next season. "I'm really looking forward to being able to win again and waking up in the morning thinking about how much I'm looking forward to racing for the win at Daytona, Sebring or Laguna Seca."