A welder or the new Hamilton? Kevin Magnussen’s parallel universes

Life is a bizarre factor. You set targets. You’re employed. You propose. However one thing fully random can change its course so dramatically that you just simply know: if that one thing hadn’t occurred, it might all be completely different. An airline algorithm might put you within the seat subsequent to your future enterprise accomplice. You could possibly step on somebody’s shoe in a bar, strike up a friendship and – bam – earlier than you realize it, you are working as a lifeguard in Australia.

Or a Danish millionaire might like your handshake and – bam – 5 years later, you are an F1 driver.

You’d suppose Kevin Magnussen‘s path was set. There was no method the son of Denmark’s greatest motorsport star might escape being a racer, proper? However when he switched from go-karts to vehicles, his father Jan ran out of cash to finance his profession – and it was rescued by a fellow referred to as Karsten Ree, one in every of Denmark’s richest males, who occurred to sponsor Magnussen Sr.’s workforce within the nation’s touring automotive championship.

“I do know for a incontrovertible fact that I gave him a great handshake after I met him,” laughs Kevin as we sit down with him exterior the Haas hospitality space forward of his closing race in F1 to look again on his profession. “I shook his hand, seemed him within the eye and apparently offered myself in a great way! He informed my dad about it later. You already know, ‘This child’s obtained one thing’. And he was like, ‘Ah! I need to assist him’.

“When it comes to outcomes, there wasn’t a lot advantage. I might carried out effectively in karting, I might received the Danish System Ford. However you realize, it wasn’t sufficient for him to go in and put all the cash in. And I assumed I am glad I gave him that good a handshake!

“Then one other investor got here in – and that was within the British System 3 season. The primary couple of races did not go so effectively, however he had made this massive dedication and he wished to see outcomes. So he referred to as me into his workplace and mentioned, ‘Look, I must see one thing’. And I simply obtained – I do not know – actually aggravated.

“I mentioned ‘OK, you realize what, come to the following race and I am going to win two races’. So cocky! And after I left I used to be like, ‘Shit! Fuck, man. What did I simply say to that man…’ – due to course he mentioned, ‘Yeah, good, I am going to come. I am going to go see it.’

Magnussen completed second to Carlin team-mate Felipe Nasr throughout the 2011 British F3 championship, his season coming alive with two wins at Snetterton

Picture by: Motorsport Photographs

“And he went there. And I received two races! And, you realize, had I not received these two races, I’ve a sense he may not have been so obsessed with this challenge!”

There’s a parallel universe wherein Kevin Magnussen, the son of a former McLaren and Stewart F1 driver, is a welder within the small city of Roskilde. When his dad might not afford to pay for Kev’s racing, his uncle obtained him a job at a neighborhood manufacturing unit “since you by no means understand how this motorsport factor goes to prove” – and he spent three months there welding issues collectively.

“The factor is, it is not even a parallel universe,” he grins. “It is this universe. You already know, I used to be in a workshop with instruments in my hand, working as a welder. I had that. Not for very lengthy, thank God, however that actuality isn’t very removed from me. And it is form of, in a method, a part of my id.

“I got here into F1 with a workforce that, on the time, you’d suppose I used to be simply copying Lewis. Even after the primary race of the season I assumed, ‘Yeah, I am following Lewis right here'”
Kevin Magnussen 

“A giant a part of me feels misplaced right here. I am a System 1 driver? Lots of people know who I’m? It nonetheless feels… not actual.”

He is carried out effectively. Ten years within the sport, 185 races, greater than 200 factors, a pole and a podium. It’s a profession that many could be jealous of. However is there something that would dramatically change its course and make the statistics look extra spectacular?

Take Lewis Hamilton, for instance. It would not take a lot creativeness to see him as an eight-time world champion – that is straightforward. However what if, within the closing laps of the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, the rain had slowed simply sufficient for Timo Glock to seek out sufficient grip to speed up out of the ultimate nook of the championship? Had Hamilton not received his first title then, would he have moved to Mercedes? There may be arguably a parallel universe the place Lewis is not a champion in any respect. However is there one the place Kevin Magnussen is?

“Properly, you realize, I got here into F1 with a workforce that, on the time, you’d suppose I used to be simply copying Lewis,” he says. “Even after the primary race of the season I assumed, ‘Yeah, I am following Lewis right here’. After I left Australia, I seemed on the drivers’ standings on the airplane, only for enjoyable. Clearly it was only one race. However I used to be P2 within the championship and I assumed, ‘OK, the struggle is on, within the first yr’. I actually thought that.

Magnussen completed second on his maiden F1 begin for McLaren within the 2014 Australian GP, nevertheless it stays his solely podium

Picture by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Photographs

“But it surely turned out to be an outlier race by way of efficiency, and the remainder of the season, and the numerous, a few years after that… it took McLaren ten years to get again to the shape that they had in 2012. And I hit it proper in the beginning of that downward pattern. And if I had come two or three years earlier, it might have been a distinct story.

“I feel I used to be additionally unfortunate to lose my seat on the finish of that yr. You already know, I had been faster than Jenson [Button], on tempo. He’d outscored me by far within the races. But it surely was fairly clear what I needed to change.

“I simply needed to end the races, you realize, simply relax a bit. It was not like I wanted to do issues higher. I wanted to carry again a bit of – after which I feel it might have been a totally completely different efficiency by way of consistency and so forth.

“I feel I used to be unfortunate to lose that seat that yr, and that form of modified my trajectory and my profession loop.”

After the McLaren board determined Button could be the one to accomplice Fernando Alonso into a brand new and – because it seemed on the time – thrilling period with Honda, Magnussen was despatched to sit down on a substitute bench. He moved again to Denmark and spent a yr travelling to races with McLaren as a reserve driver, all whereas battling melancholy and desperately wanting to return again. He finally did with Renault – however the momentum was misplaced.

“I nonetheless believed in it,” he says, when requested if the considered profitable the world championship had gone out of his head by then. “What I wished to do was present that I used to be adequate to go together with a giant workforce. And I feel Haas was an important place to try this.

“I ended up coming again to F1 with Renault, however just for one yr [in 2016] – and that was poisonous. I might have continued. Though they denied providing me a contract – I can present you the contract they provided me. However the entire thing was poisonous there, so I used to be glad to get the prospect to go to Haas and discover that stability and that assist.

“It was my third yr in F1. I used to be 24 or one thing… 23? You already know, something was nonetheless attainable. I nonetheless believed it was attainable. And there have been moments after I felt it was entering into that route.

His 2016 season with Renault is one Magnussen describes right this moment as poisonous, earlier than his transfer to Haas for 2017

Picture by: Mark Sutton

“In 2018, we had a extremely good automotive within the first half of the yr. Charles [Leclerc] had simply arrived in F1 with Sauber. And the beginning of his first season wasn’t nice. And mine was actually good! After which all of a sudden Ferrari was reaching out.

“All of a sudden I used to be driving of their simulator, not for Haas, however for Ferrari. They have been sniffing round. And I assumed, okay… I used to be already getting enthusiastic about the place this was going. However then Charles began to essentially kill it! And I heard nothing.

“I do not understand how shut it obtained. However I feel if Charles had not began to carry out, if he had had a shitty season all yr lengthy, I feel I’d have been one of many drivers they might have checked out. Typically you’re feeling like you might be getting shut, however nonetheless not that shut. That is the best way it goes.

“Christian [Horner] mentioned, ‘Look, there’s nothing at Pink Bull, however we will speak about Toro Rosso’. And I mentioned, ‘No, no, let’s not do this,’ which I in all probability ought to have carried out”
Kevin Magnussen

“And after that season, Daniel [Ricciardo] left Pink Bull, and I bear in mind my administration talking to Christian Horner, due to course everybody was speaking in regards to the Pink Bull seat. And Christian mentioned, ‘Look, there’s nothing at Pink Bull, however we will speak about Toro Rosso’. And I mentioned, ‘No, no, let’s not do this,’ which I in all probability ought to have carried out.

“It was Gasly who took that [Red Bull] seat. [Alex] Albon was promoted from F2 to Toro Rosso, after which Gasly did not do a great job – and Albon got here in! So, you realize, the man who obtained that Toro Rosso seat ended up at Pink Bull.”

It will have been too straightforward – to not say unfair – to place all of it right down to luck and probability. You continue to should set targets, plan and work exhausting. Does he really feel he is labored as exhausting as he ought to have? And does he consider he had the expertise to turn into a world champion?

“I might have carried out extra, for certain,” he admits. “You already know, I do not suppose anybody can say ‘I could not have carried out extra’. I feel there’ll at all times be issues… There have been occasions after I did not work exhausting sufficient. However then there have been occasions after I labored my butt off. I do not actually have any regrets. I do not suppose there’s something I might have carried out to alter the course of my profession. I actually doubt that.

Magnussen says he has no regrets as he prepares to depart F1 for a brand new chapter with BMW in sportscars

Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs

“And what’s sufficient expertise? I’d have beloved to have had extra – as a result of it might have made issues simpler! However I feel I had a reasonably good quantity of expertise. If something, I’d have appreciated to have been extra within the expertise right here.

“That half would not actually curiosity me. I need to simply drive. And I feel all these techniques and all this mapping stuff and all this theoretical set-up stuff faults me a bit of bit. I am not a automotive man!

“More often than not at house I drive my spouse’s Volvo as a result of it is extra snug than my very own automotive. I respect simply driving and competing. But when I had a much bigger pure curiosity within the expertise aspect, it might have in all probability benefited me.”

Maybe he might have carried out higher with the media. You’d in all probability blame him for having one of many lowest variety of Instagram followers on the grid, regardless of spending 9 full years racing in F1. You’d in all probability argue that he might at the least attempt to work on his picture. However whereas different drivers use nearly each arrival within the paddock as a red-carpet alternative, Kev at all times walks by means of the gates sporting denims, sneakers and a workforce T-shirt.

“That is part of F1 that I do not actually determine with,” says Magnussen. “Like… being the influencer is one thing I do not relate to. Under no circumstances.

“I am a driver. I drive the automotive. I’d really feel very misplaced strolling in with a Prada, you realize, no matter – all these trend manufacturers… In the event that they’d paid me some huge cash, okay, perhaps I’d put on it! However I’d nonetheless really feel very unusual.

“I imply, there is a business aspect to F1 that I’ve realized to navigate. Clearly, there’s some huge cash in sponsorship and business offers. However what I’ve kind of discovered is that these high-end trend manufacturers do not need to pay anyway as a result of they’re so massive. So that you higher go together with an IT firm.

“What’s all of it for? Constructing a giant model, turning into a trend icon and all that… I feel some individuals are simply pleasing their egos. If you consider it… we’re simply racing vehicles, you realize? The actually necessary issues in life should not occurring right here.

Magnussen hasn’t purchased into among the branding components which have crept into F1

Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photographs

“However I feel it is one thing that is constructed into us from a younger age, in all these drivers, that that is who we’re. It is our id. It pleases our egos – to be quick. We really feel good once we’re fast, faster than different guys.

“It is a bizarre factor, proper, if you consider it! Being quicker than another person, making him really feel shit… That may be a f***ing good feeling! And I do not know what it’s. It is a bizarre factor. But when you consider what we truly do right here, it turns into a bit trivial.”

However F1, with all its pretentious grandiosity and over-inflated egos, has given Kevin Magnussen every part he has now.

“I can spend on a regular basis I would like with my youngsters. And we nonetheless have meals on the desk. You already know, that is a very powerful factor I take away from this profession”
Kevin Magnussen

“It has given me the chance to dwell a privileged life,” he says. “At the beginning, I have a look at it from the angle that I am a dad now. I present for my household and I can do this by driving a automotive and nonetheless take pleasure in life.

“That may be a big privilege that not many individuals have. I can spend on a regular basis I would like with my youngsters. And we nonetheless have meals on the desk. You already know, that is a very powerful factor I take away from this profession. That is what I am most grateful for.”

Life is a very unusual factor. You possibly can lose your dream job, get depressed, burn by means of all of your money, transfer again to your hometown of fifty,000 together with your tail between your legs – and meet the love of your life and the long run mom of your kids.

“She was working as a waitress in a restaurant and I simply began flirting along with her within the restaurant,” Kevin tells of how he met Louise. “I had simply misplaced my seat at McLaren and we met at a time after I was fairly depressed. She was learning – she’s a trainer and she or he was learning for that – and I used to be residing in her little condo. Principally she sorted me, not the opposite method round.

Magnussen credit his spouse Louise with serving to to maintain his racing profession going

Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs

“I ran out of cash fully. I paid a giant a part of what I earned to my investor. And I used to be younger and dumb, so I spent the remainder. I spent each penny I earned that yr. So a couple of months into the next yr, I merely ran out of cash.

“I had no revenue. The financial institution had blocked all my bank cards. So after I obtained a proposal from Toto [Wolff] to do a DTM shootout take a look at with Mercedes, I could not even purchase an EasyJet ticket. She paid for it. And I borrowed her bank card to go to that take a look at and purchase meals and petrol for the rental automotive. She’s actually been wonderful.”

He is not ending his F1 profession with a world championship. He hasn’t even received a race. And his solely podium continues to be the one he obtained in Australia in 2014. However he’ll let you know that he is obtained one thing larger out of his time in F1.

“It is one thing that is solely got here within the final couple of years,” says Magnussen, who will race in the World Endurance Championship next year as a BMW factory driver. “Whereas up to now, I feel I used to be very determined simply to be in F1 and to attain my targets in F1. I assumed… I actually thought that happiness in life trusted that, you realize? And it has been an important aid to return out of that bubble and realise that it would not rely upon that in any respect. You already know, it is a good factor to have, nevertheless it’s not a should.

“I imply, I have a look at it from two angles. In a method, I did not obtain my purpose. And I am truly, you realize… it is annoying! It is form of annoying. And it’ll at all times be annoying!

“But it surely’s high quality, you realize. I have a look at what I obtained out of it and it is actually exhausting to really feel any kind of unhealthy feelings. After I look again on it from that angle, it is like… ‘Hell, sure!’”

Magnussen is pleased with what he completed, even when he did not meet all his targets

Picture by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Photographs