3 reasons why Kevin Magnussen's return could be the best-case scenario for Haas
Kevin Magnussen will replace Nikita Mazepin as the second driver at Haas.
After all the permutations and combinations, Haas has finally ended up with the Danish driver - someone who used to drive for the team until 2020. He is also well entrenched within the culture of the team for a long time.
In this piece, we'll take a look at why Kevin Magnussen was possibly the best case scenario for Haas once they got rid of Nikita Mazepin. So, without further ado, let's jump straight to it.
#3 Kevin Magnussen won't take much time to adapt
Reunited 🤝
#HaasF1 https://t.co/LhDtaOp0Q5
Kevin Magnussen is not new to the team in any which way. He was part of the team for four seasons between 2017-2020 and had a lot of ups and downs with the team in that period
Regardless of what Drive to Survive loves to portray, Magnussen and Guenther Steiner do appear to have a good working relationship. With the new regulations in play right now, an experienced hand in Kevin Magnussen is going to be a great help as compared to Nikita Mazepin.
Mazepin had found it hard to keep up with his teammates last season.
Magnussen has been a part of the team for a long time and he is aware of how things work within. Someone with that much information fits like a glove with the team.
When looking at the options for Haas's second driver, we always tend to ignore the crucial fact that Haas is probably one of the more unique environments in F1.
It's an American team led by an Austrian and that does lend itself to an ecosystem that you will not find anywhere else. Kevin Magnussen, on his part, has been there and will not spend his time adapting to the cultural shocks that would plague a new driver.
#2 Alongside Mick Schumacher, Kevin forms a potent driver lineup
YES my friend. Really happy for you twitter.com/KevinMagnussen…
Lest we forget, Kevin Magnussen scored a podium in his very first race in F1. Not only that, he had the upper hand over Romain Grosjean, a driver with 10 podium finishes to his name. Kevin Magnussen is no slouch, he's a pretty handy driver. He may not be a Max Verstappen or Leclerc or Norris - but he can be a consistent points scorer if the car is good enough.
If we do compare, he is hands down a much better pick than Mazepin for that second seat. Early impressions indicate that Haas might have to battle it out against the likes of Williams and Alfa Romeo in a battle of backmarkers this season.
Earlier with Mazepin in one of the cars, it would have been foolish to give Haas the upper hand over Williams or Alfa Romeo. However, now if you compare the combination of Kevin Magnussen and Schumacher against the likes of Bottas-Zhou at Alfa and Albon-Latifi at Williams, then the Haas driver combo does look better.
For Haas, this is definitely an upgrade in terms of the driver line-up and could bode well for the team this season.
#1 Nico Hulkenberg might not have been willing to join the team
Good news @F1 ! Together with Monaco, Singapore is actually the highlight of the season on the calendar. Looking forward to exciting weekends! twitter.com/F1/status/1486…
The other potent option that could have made a lot of sense at the moment would have been Nico Hulkenberg. However, it's also no secret that Hulk was even offered this seat earlier by Guenther Steiner when he was about to leave Renault in 2019. Hulk declined at the time, citing the reason that he will only make a comeback if he gets an opportunity to drive for one of the frontrunners.
That hasn't happened, and other than a few one-off races here and there in 2020, Hulk has not raced in F1. In the meantime, Haas has regressed in terms of competitiveness. The car has not fought in the midfield for two seasons now and their sacrifice of the 2021 season to go all out for the 2022 season's car seems to have fallen flat.
The first test was poor as the car suffered from reliability issues and hence covered a limited number of laps. Even when it ran, it didn't look impressive. Haas is most probably going to fight at the tail-end of the grid this season.
For Hulkenberg, coming back to a backmarker did not add any value to his career and ruled him out of contention. With Hulkenberg out of the picture, the only driver left that could be picked based on merit was Kevin Magnussen and Haas went for him.
At the end of the day, Haas has made the most of the options that were present in front of it. It has made a statement of intent by not putting a quality driver in that seat instead of a pay driver that does not add any value other than the dollars that come with his services. It shows the direction in which the team wants to go forward in the coming seasons.