Maximum Attack: Kevin Magnussen Looks Ahead to Formula 1 Swansong

The Dane, who will leave the American team at the end of 2025 to be replaced by Ferrari junior star Oliver Bearman, has a topsy-turvy 2024 season, achieving a best result of eighth in Austria.

At times, in the first half of the season, Magnussen played the team game, helping his teammate Nico Hulkenberg score points in Saudi Arabia and the Sprint in Miami with some masterful defensive driving.

But Magnussen's best individual display came during a wet weather masterclass in the Canadian Grand Prix. With most of the field starting on intermediates, Haas gambled and put wets on his and Hulkenberg's cars for the start of the race. Using the extra grip, the Dane soared through the field, moving up to fourth before a botched pitstop to change to intermediates ended any chance of finishing in the points.

The pair's teamwork and Haas' upgrades have helped them vault up to seventh in the constructors' championship, scoring 27 points, double the amount they accumulated in 2024. Those results have put the American team within seven points of catching RB for sixth in the constructors' championship. If they were to beat the Italian team, it would be their highest finish in the constructors championship since 2018, where they narrowly missed out on fourth place to Renault.

"No different to any other races, I would say," explained Magnussen exclusively to autoevolution on his approach entering the final nine races of his F1 career. "I am just focused on the progress and trying to finish off the season and my time with Haas in the best way we can. I think it's been a pretty positive year in terms of the development that we've been able to put the car.

"I think there were was still missed opportunities, races where we could have got more out of it, and we didn't for various reasons. We've hit trouble too many times in qualifying where we have traffic and was out in Q1 when we should have been fighting for Q3, which had a big impact on our races.

"Unfortunately, it's happened quite a few times at races where we've looked really competitive on that front we missed out a little bit. But still were very close to RB for P6 in the constructors championship. I think that's a nice goal to set ourselves to chase them to the rest of the year."

Potential race ban still a concern

However, a cloud has been hanging over Magnussen throughout this season. Since May's Miami GP, the Dane has been threatened by a possible race ban after accumulating 10 penalty points on his FIA superlicence.

Two more points would have got him to the 12 needed for a race ban, which would have made him the first driver since Romain Grosjean in 2012 to be forced to sit out of a race weekend.

A violent pile-up at the start of the Monaco GP, which wiped out both Haas drivers and Sergio Perez, had seemingly secured him those dreaded two points. However, the FIA deemed that no further action would be taken, saving him from a ban.

Magnussen has ten penalty points, with only three set to expire in January 2025; the Dane remains at risk.

Fernando Alonso and Perez are the next at-risk drivers, with eight penalty points each. Lance Stroll has accumulated five on his super licence, while triple world champion Max Verstappen has four.

"It's still an issue, I still have ten points on my licence," explained Magnussen. "Another big penalty will give me a race ban, but obviously, it's not something I think about a lot.

"I am aware of it, but I have kind of decided to just crack on as if nothing happened. I could have taken the approach to say, 'Okay, I am going to be super careful from now on.'

"But I think that's kind of like wasting a whole year because it would be such a long period that I would be racing with this threat of a race ban. I just decided to crack on and not think about it."

Komatsu gets full marks in debut season in the top job

Before the 2024 season began, Haas replaced the charismatic Guenther Steiner with former trackside engineering director Ayao Komatsu.

Steiner had been part of the Haas project since 2014, becoming the face of the team with his larger-than-life personality, making him a fan favourite on Netflix's hit television documentary Drive to Survive.

Komatsu, a native of Tokyo, had been a mainstay at the team since they made their F1 debut at the 2016 Australian GP, joining with Grosjean from Lotus, where they had worked together since 2012.

"He's good to work with," said Magnussen. "I've known him since the beginning of my time at Haas, obviously as a chief race engineer. He's done a good job as a team principal, and we've shown on track that we have been performing better this year.

"Both in terms of the outright pace of the car at the beginning of the year but also the development rate has been better. We had been putting upgrades on the car that's have made it quicker, in other years when we put upgrades on the car; it hasn't always made the car quicker, so that's been a real positive this year."