Formula One has changed for the better, says Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen exploded on to the Formula One scene at the 2014 season-opening Australian Grand Prix when he finished second on his debut for McLaren-Mercedes. The oldest son of former McLaren driver Jan Magnussen, Kevin has since quietly spent the year soaking up as much knowledge and experience as possible.

With his future still undecided for 2015, the Dane reflects on his rookie season and how his life has changed.

At 22, you are the second youngest driver in the paddock behind Daniil Kvyat, but you have been around motorsports all your life courtesy of your father, Jan. What are your first memories of racing?

Well, I started very young. When I was two years old, I started driving go-karts and stuff. Obviously, I don’t really remember it, but I have seen pictures and videos. My first proper memory is probably getting into international kart racing. That’s when things started to get serious and I remember it being exciting and a special time as I was racing in big, international championships. That was my first taste of real racing.

There was a programme on TV recently that appeared to show you as a young boy racing in a McLaren go-kart. Can you tell us about that?

Yeah, it must have been around 1995, when my dad was at McLaren. It was one of my first karts and my uncle built it from scratch. He welded the frame, did the fibreglass, everything.

Speaking of your dad, he raced in an era that many modern day drivers – I’m thinking Kimi Raikkonen in particular – look at and wish the sport was a little more like that: more fun and less commercial. Would you have preferred to race back then?

I don’t know if it was more fun. I wasn’t there obviously, but it’s still a lot of fun now. It was definitely a lot more simple back then, but that’s just the result of time passing. You can’t unlearn what you have learnt and things have become more complex. Sure, some things were better in the past, but some things are better now. The cars are obviously better now, which is cool. The engineers were obviously clever back then, too, but their knowledge now is so vast.

Your dad is still active and raced in the 24 Hours of Dubai earlier this year, as well as competing in the American Le Mans Series. Do you ever get a chance to watch him race and do you share advice?

Yeah, he is still very busy, racing with Corvette in America and racing bits and pieces here and there. He is always very busy, racing all year and racing in Denmark, too. He’s still very fast and has many years left in racing, so as long as he enjoys it, then I think he should continue racing.

You mentioned Denmark. Is it fair to say finishing on the podium on your F1 debut in Australia was perhaps not the best thing for you in terms of heightening expectations? It seemed that your compatriots were suddenly expecting you to challenge for the world championship.

It certainly raised expectations, but it doesn’t really affect me that much. They can think what they want. I am here to do a job and get results, and what they think is not my problem. I have great support from them. There is always going to be some people who are not happy with what you do, You can’t make everybody happy. If I win, there are always going to be some fans of other drivers who aren’t going to be happy. At the end of the day, though, one day I will get a good result, and I’m sure Denmark will be proud – even more than they are now.

Has life changed when you go home? Presumably, you must get recognised a lot more now?

No, I haven’t changed. I still have the same friends and while I live in England now, when I go back to Denmark, I go back to the same places. I do the same things that I used to do. Nothing has changed except for my job title and with Denmark being so small, it’s normal you get more attention, but I don’t notice it so much.

With one being awful and 10 being perfect, how would you rate your first season in F1?

It’s difficult. I’ve never thought about it like that. If I had won the championship in my first season, I could probably still have gone back and said ‘I could have done this better’. I have had bad luck, but I have also areas where I could have done better. It’s been a really good season in some areas, but the results haven’t been great. As a rookie though, my first year in F1, this year has made me very strong. I will come out of this season having learnt a lot of things that I would not have learnt if I had just cruised to the championship in a massively fast car.

We are still waiting on McLaren's plans are for next season in terms of driver line-up. I appreciate you don't know either, but perhaps you could talk about what you have learnt from racing alongside Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion.

I’ve learnt many, many things. It’s not one specific thing. It’s just his quality of driving is very high, and you learn from that. I look at his driving and tyre management and his way of working with his team and his feedback and it improves my feedback and working with my team and my tyre management. He’s also a very open and nice guy as well, and I feel I can talk to him and learn things, and I’m sure he has learnt a little from me as well.

Button enjoys competing in triathlon and Ironman challenges. Has he ever tried to get you involved and what are your other hobbies outside of motorsport?

No, he never has and good luck to him if he ever does try. I don’t have any one hobby outside F1. I am always doing sport; I’m always very active. Whenever I go home, I spend time with people, play a bit of golf, tennis and football, but I’m not very good at any of them.

gmeenaghan@thenational.ae

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