Christensen: Endurance experience helped Kevin

This year there’s been a lot of talk about how the new generation of Formula 1 cars turned out to be too heavy, this inevitably affects their behavior on the track, so it’s harder for drivers to manage, and not everyone is able to quickly adapt to them.

But there is one person who has had a smile on his face from the start of the season, whose results surprise and delight his team, fans and of course himself. This man – Kevin Magnussen, unexpectedly, due to a very special set of circumstances, returned to Formula 1. Suffice it to say that he earned points in three of the four races that took place.

In addition, he is not at all ashamed of the slightly overweight Haas car, because last year he drove much heavier equipment, mainly the American Cadillac DPi-VR sports cars of the Chip Ganassi team. Paradoxically, this experience now serves him well, although these are completely different cars and endurance racing is hardly worthy of the comparison with Formula 1.

At least, that’s what Tom Christensen, Kevin’s compatriot, thinks the legendary Danish racer, nine-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Tom Christensen: “There is no doubt that Kevin and his team are doing very well. In addition, he got on very well with Mick Schumacher, his teammate. There is no direct rivalry between them, Mick is younger and I would say Kevin treats him like a younger brother.

They communicate very well and it is a very win-win situation for Haas. If their car had very little speed last year, now everything is fine with it, which is of course in the hands of both Kevin and Mick.

Last year Magnussen competed in endurance races, he drove heavy sports cars, and strangely enough this was excellent preparation for a return to Formula 1. In America he was used to the weight of such cars, to their big wheels, to the constant battle on the track in heavy traffic conditions and the fact that you have to constantly adapt with these machines. All this has done him good.

I heard him on the radio talking to his engineers – Kevin is very calm, he doesn’t demand too much from them, but at the same time he honestly says that in such and such a turn it is impossible to win something back, but you can and add so-and-so parts of the route, “Can I use the curb over there a little more?”

When he asks the engineers to optimize the machine settings, he does it in a very mature and confident way. And I saw that when he left the cockpit of the car, he smiled, he was in a good mood – this is very important!