Magnussen wants more underdog stories - like Leicester winning the Premier League

Kevin Magnussen has expressed a desire to see more underdog winners in Formula One, and has cited Leicester City winning the English Premier League a couple of years ago as an example of a non-fancied competitor shocking the world to win a title.

Last season, only one driver, Lance Stroll, claimed a podium position who was outside the top three teams of Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, and these teams remain the favourites for more success in 2018.

Magnussen wants to see a more even playing field so that underdog winners can become the norm.

“It would give a much better chance to us smaller teams.” said Magnussen.

“Who knows, even in the beginning, we would have an advantage because we’re used to not spending all that money. We wouldn’t have to change as many things.

“But big organisations like Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, they would really have to cut back on many things and change their structure a lot. So it would be really interesting.

“It’s frustrating that you only have one or two, maybe three drivers that you can root for who are winning.

“I have fans rooting for me, all the other drivers in the midfield have fans rooting for them, and they never get to see that driver fighting for wins.

“Of course it would be a lot better if you had a broader range of drivers who were in the fight for wins.”

In 2016, Leicester City shocked the sporting world when they won the Premier League despite being close to relegation just the previous season, and Magnussen wants to see surprising stories like this in Formula One.

“You get teams who have a lot of fans who support a team that maybe doesn’t always win – but then like Leicester a few years ago, mega story that suddenly they go on and win the Premier League.

“That’s a bit extreme, I know. Sometimes Barcelona gets beaten by a smaller team, and that’s great.

“They don’t get beaten very often, but it does happen sometimes. The people that root for the smaller team, they have a reason to root for them and kind of hope. I think it would be great.”