F1 star looks back on his dream F1 debut a decade on from his 'greatest race'

Kevin Magnussen, Saudi Arabia GP, Haas, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 star looks back on his dream F1 debut a decade on from his 'greatest race'

Kevin Magnussen made his F1 debut for McLaren almost exactly 10 years ago

Tyler Rowlinson

Thursday 28 March 2024 19:00

Kevin Magnussen has reflected on his F1 debut back in 2014 – and the Danish driver made a real impression.

The then 21-year-old had just signed with McLaren after an impressive junior career, coming off the back of winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Series the year prior.

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With 2009 world champion Jenson Button as his team-mate, Magnussen qualified a brilliant fourth for his debut in Australia, while Button could only manage 11th.

Navigating safety cars and his first pit stops in the sport, the Dane went on to finish on the podium in third – the first podium for a debutant since Lewis Hamilton seven years earlier – before being promoted to second after Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified, giving Button third and a double McLaren podium.

Kevin Magnussen debuted with McLaren in 2014

The Danish driver finished second in the race in Australia

Magnussen: I put too much pressure on myself

“I felt super confident,” he said. “I had the naive mentality of a young person coming off a successful junior career and going into F1 with one of the greatest teams, so my expectations were very high.

“Even that, today, I would be super happy about,” reflecting on his qualifying position. “But back then it was just expected, it was what I expected, so it was nothing special. I felt very normal about it. I didn’t feel any pressure or any nerves ahead of the race.

“Before that, I remember first practice and the scenery of being on the track with the official F1 sponsors on the banners and walls. You could see a Ferrari with Fernando Alonso in it, Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes… Suddenly, it felt very real.

“I was there with those drivers in those teams, on this track – I was one of them. That was a bigger moment for me than the start of the race.”

The 31-year-old spoke of the moment he noticed he was on course for a podium: “Towards the end, I realised, ‘S**t, I’m in P3, I’m about to get a podium in my first race!’ It was sort of a realisation with a couple of laps to go. I hadn’t really thought about it, I’d just kind of gotten on with my race.”

Magnussen has not achieved another podium since his debut

Magnussen then admitted that he put too much expectation on him to score more podiums and even wins – due to him racing for McLaren – but the team began to fall behind as Mercedes dominated the turbo hybrid era.

To date, the Dane has not scored another podium in his career and was dropped by McLaren at the end of the 2014 season in favour of Alonso, before returning to F1 with Renault in 2016.

“After that podium, the expectation from myself was that it would, for sure, happen again,” he said. “I had no doubt. Coming into Australia and after Australia, I thought I was going to fight for the championship – 100%.

“I think I put too much pressure on myself. Instead of just focusing on getting the best out of what I had at the time, I was focusing on the fact that we weren’t getting more podiums and wins. I was just too negative in my mind.

“In F1, only a couple of guys can really fight for the championship, it’s just the way it is with the cars. You’ve just got to sometimes consolidate, take what you can and not really have a specific target in your mind, but really just do your best.”

Lewis Hamilton McLaren Daniel Ricciardo F1 Haas Kevin Magnussen