Will Kevin Magnussen Find Another F1 Seat After Being Dumped by McLaren?
"Proceed with caution." If that disclaimer isn't already a standard line on contracts for young McLaren drivers, perhaps it should be.
In an interview with motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble last week, McLaren reserve driver Kevin Magnussen revealed that the team told him they would not pick up the option on his contract with an email from team boss Ron Dennis' personal assistant. And the email arrived on his birthday (October 5).
"Oh, I didn't really mind," Magnussen told Noble. "That's just a detail, isn't it? There's no need to make a fuss about stuff like that."
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He also said the decision was expected, but the optics for McLaren still aren't great. It's a bit like your partner breaking up with you via text message.
In 2013, you may remember, McLaren dumped Sergio Perez late in the season, again, after many seats for the following year were already filled. Perez was brushed aside in favour of a young Dane named...Kevin Magnussen.
Of course, there is no room for sentimentality on the business side of Formula One. Teams are spending hundreds of millions, and they expect results. Even so, there are human beings beneath those crash helmets. Was it too much for Dennis or racing director Eric Boullier to pull Magnussen aside in Suzuka and say, "Thanks for everything you've done for the team, but there isn't a place for you next year"?
Apart from the medium chosen for the break-up message, the bigger issue for Magnussen is that he now has to find another seat.
The late-season sacking worked out well for Perez, as he ended up at Force India, where he has scored as many podiums as the McLaren team over the past two years. Of course, he had the backing of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to help cushion his landing.
Magnussen does not have the same type of backing, as evidenced by Dennis' plea to Danish businesses this past summer in the country's Ekstra Bladet newspaper (h/t Autosport) for someone to step up and sponsor the young Dane.
However, Magnussen does have two things teams are looking for: experience (particularly in the hybrid generation of F1 cars) and talent. In fact, he still has McLaren's best result since Lewis Hamilton left the team at the end of 2012: second, in his debut race, the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
Magnussen turned 23 on that bittersweet birthday a couple weeks ago, but he was already yesterday's news in the McLaren garage. With Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button confirmed for another season and Stoffel Vandoorne (who is actually about six months older than Magnussen) winning the GP2 title this season, Magnussen knew he would have to look elsewhere to race in 2016.
The new Haas team still have one seat available, but it is expected to go to one of Ferrari's current test drivers, per GMM Newswire (h/t Fox Sports).
Manor have not confirmed either driver for next season, although, as a small outfit, they are likely looking for drivers who bring a substantial sponsorship budget. And with the announcement that they will be using Mercedes power units in 2016, there will certainly be more competition for those seats.
Lotus/Renault is the other possibility. They have confirmed Pastor Maldonado and his millions in Venezuelan oil money for next year, but with Romain Grosjean moving to Haas, the other seat is open.
The team has been good, but not spectacular this year—and that is with Mercedes engines. A return to Renault power for 2016 does not bode well for their short-term results, unless the French company can make massive improvements over the winter.
Still, if Magnussen wants to race in F1 next year, that is probably his best chance.
"Kevin deserves a place in Formula One," Button recently told Danish newspaper BT (h/t F1i.com). "I don't know if he has a chance to secure one of the few free Formula One seats, but he is clearly the best driver on the market and I would recommend him very strongly to the teams that still has an opening."
In the end, perhaps McLaren promoted Magnussen too soon. After winning the Formula Renault 3.5 title in 2013, what if he had gone on to GP2 and competed against Vandoorne? Maybe he would still be at the top of McLaren's list once Alonso or Button move on.
But that is just speculation. Magnussen did race in F1 and he performed well. But was that performance enough to earn him another chance?
He isn't giving up, telling Noble, "I've had good talks with a number of Formula One teams, and some of them are still going on. So I have chances there. Formula One is still my aim. My ambitions haven't changed. I know how to win races, I know how to win championships and I still intend to be Formula One world champion. That won't change."
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