Bilan 2024: Magnussen a model team-mate for Haas
F1. The Dane has just completed his ninth and probably final season in Formula 1. While he still sometimes made the headlines for his defenses against other drivers or his pace, which was well below that of his team-mate, he also played an important role in Haas's success in 2024.
In nine seasons, he alternated between good and less good performances. After a final campaign in 2024, the man with 185 Formula 1 starts is stepping down. Although his Formula 1 career did not achieve immense success, he still left his mark, both positively and negatively. This trend was evident in 2024, where he sometimes displayed his aggressiveness on the track, drawing the ire of other drivers, but also showed his speed, as evidenced by his seventh place at the Mexican Grand Prix.
A pace that remains below Hülkenberg's.
Despite everything, the difference with Hülkenberg remains substantial. While the German finished the championship in 11th place with 41 points, the Dane only collected 16 and ended up in 15th position. Although the car was much faster than in 2023, when the American team finished last in the constructors' championship, the former Force India driver regularly proved to be faster than his teammate, especially in the exercise of the fast lap, where he often managed to extract the precious tenths of a second necessary for competitiveness in the middle of the grid. Over the entire season, the Dane was 0.16 seconds slower in qualifying, which often prevented him from reaching Q3 and subsequently achieving convincing results in the race.
Very rough defenses to protect his teammate
However, this position at the back of the grid has often allowed him to implement alternative strategies compared to his opponents. While the car suffered greatly last season in terms of tire degradation, it has made progress in this area in 2024. Indeed, at the beginning of the season, on circuits like Jeddah or Miami, the Dane was somewhat sacrificed by his team, which asked him to significantly slow down the pack behind him to allow Hülkenberg to escape and emerge ahead of all his rivals in the pit stop game.
If this directive allowed Haas to score important points, it also drew the ire of other teams. With much less fresh tires, Magnussen still had to manage to keep the pack behind him, which sometimes led to incidents, like in Miami.
During the sprint race, he received three ten-second penalties and three penalty points on his super license for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his battle with Lewis Hamilton. The next day, he was given two additional points for his collision with Logan Sargeant's Williams. Aggressive behavior that eventually backfired on him. After another incident, this time with Pierre Gasly, he became the first driver to receive a race ban after accumulating 12 penalty points on his license. Adding to that his withdrawal in Brazil due to illness, Kevin Magnussen's 2024 season was anything but smooth.
A more convincing end of the season
Nevertheless, it was not as bad as one might think. After a timid start to the season (1 point from the first 10 races), the former McLaren driver experienced a resurgence with an eighth place in Austria, a ninth place in Qatar, but most notably a seventh position in Mexico, two places ahead of Hülkenberg.
Despite everything, his performances did not convince Haas to keep him in the seat for 2025, which would have been his tenth season in the discipline. Next year, Ayao Komatsu, head of the American team, has decided to recruit Esteban Ocon from Alpine, Haas's main rival at the end of the season, as well as young Briton Oliver Bearman, former Formula 2 driver with Prema. A new partnership that is likely to create sparks.
