MOGYORÑD, Hungary — At the conclusion of the 2024 Formula One season, Kevin Magnussen will depart from Haas, the team stated.
The driver with the longest contract in Haas F1 history, Magnussen, 31, began his second term with the team in 2022. The end of the year marks the expiration of his contract.
His seat is widely expected to be taken by outgoing Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, but Haas has yet to announce its plans for who will partner Oliver Bearman for 2025.
Magnussen honored Haas in the press conference leading up to the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, stating that he was “happy to have raced for such a terrific team of individuals” during his seven years with the American squad.
“I’ve enjoyed some great moments with this team, memories I’ll never forget,” Magnussen said. “While I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my racing career, I remain fully focused on giving everything I’ve got for the rest of 2024 with Haas F1 Team.”
How Magnussen’s Viking spirit lifted Haas
By Formula One standards, Haas is a youthful team going into its ninth season, yet Magnussen has contributed more to the team’s history than any other driver.
After leaving Renault, he first joined the team in 2017. This marked the beginning of professional stability for him after a wild beginning to his Formula One career, as he finished second on his debut with McLaren in 2014 before being removed from the grid after just one season.
Magnussen found a home with Haas. The Dane said to The Athletic back in February that he believed he had “been allowed to develop as a driver properly” with Haas. As the team ascended the F1 grid in 2017 and 2018, the Dane established himself as a consistent points scorer.
Magnussen found it difficult to keep up with Haas when his fortunes began to slip on the track. When Haas decided to bring in two rookies, Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, to help secure some financial security from their sponsors, it resulted in his departure at the end of 2020.
Magnussen considered his tenure with Haas as the conclusion of his Formula One career. In addition to enabling him to compete in the United States for a full season in the IMSA sportscar series and a single IndyCar appearance for McLaren, it also gave him the opportunity to return to Denmark and begin a family.
On the eve of the 2022 season, however, Mazepin’s contract was terminated due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Günther Steiner, the team principal at the time, and team owner Gene Haas called Magnussen right away to inquire about his interest in returning. Magnussen immediately agreed, even before asking his wife.
After Magnussen made a comeback, Haas finished in fifth place in Bahrain, which was the second-best result in his F1 career. Steiner praised Magnussen for a “f—ing Viking comeback.” He guided its operations until 2022, but over the next two seasons, Haas once more fell to the back of the pack.
Magnussen has only scored five points this year, less than a fourth of what teammate Nico Hülkenberg has collected, with his best performance coming in P8 in Austria at the beginning of the month. (Hülkenberg will begin racing at Sauber in 2025.)
What’s next for Magnussen?
Magnussen has been sounding like a driver who is very much at ease with the prospect of not being on the Formula One grid next year for weeks now.
Magnussen has acknowledged that he is a “active participant” in what appears to be a dynamic market for 2025, especially at the rear of the grid, but he has also drawn attention to the significant expenses associated with committing to an F1 campaign year after year.
“When I think about my future, it’s not like if I’m not in F1, I feel like it’s going to be a bad life at all,” Magnussen said at the Austrian Grand Prix. “I feel a little bit the opposite. There’s a big cost to being in Formula One, and sometimes I question whether it’s worth it.
“Because it’s 24 races. Being a family man it’s a high cost. It’s not just those 24 races, it’s a lot of stuff as well, and it just fills your year 100 percent and it’s not easy to do anything else.”
Magnussen would probably have no shortage of options outside of Formula One racing should he fail to win a ticket for 2025. He had joined up for Peugeot’s Le Mans Hypercar program and competed for Chip Ganassi in the IMSA during his year off before making his tardy return to Formula One with Haas in 2022. Alongside his father Jan, he participated in the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, realizing a shared lifelong ambition.
“There’s a lot to be said about winning races and I haven’t done that in a long time,” Magnussen said last month. “I miss that.”
(Photo: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)
