Guenther Steiner names 4 drivers including Kevin Magnussen who could face the axe in order for their F1 teams to succeed
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner claimed that his former charge Kevin Magnussen was amongst the drivers on the grid who could miss out on a seat for the 2025 season. The Danish driver's contract with the American team expires at the end of the 2024 season, with there appearing little to no possibility of extending the deal from the team's end.
Haas has already signed Ferrari junior driver Ollie Bearman as replacement for Nico Hulkenberg, who is Audi-bound for next year, while Esteban Ocon has been heavily rumored to be joining the Brit in the team for the 2025 season after his Alpine exit.
While appearing on The Red Flag podcast, Steiner mentioned that Kevin Magnussen was amongst the drivers that could leave F1 for the good of the teams on the grid. He said (via PlanetF1):
“There is this time when you need to realize there’s quite a few now if you look in there. We have got Checo, Danny, Kevin, and Bottas. I feel Bottas is difficult to say something about because the car is not really good so we don’t really know where he is.
“But there are quite a lot of these guys and the people who give them a seat need to think about this, is this the best for the team?” he added.
Kevin Magnussen provides an update on his F1 future
Kevin Magnussen stated that he had thoughts of racing beyond F1, as he did not want to continue racing in midfield machinery for the rest of his career.
As per The Race, the Haas F1 driver reflected on his dreams of winning races and championships and was contemplating joining other series as well. He said:
"I've been sort of in the midfield pretty much every year that I've been in Formula 1. I'm 31 years old, I'm starting to also think that - if I finish my motorsport career having just done F1 in the midfield, that kind of maybe feels empty in some way, also.
"I watch some of those races, you know, Le Mans, Indy 500 - I see the guys that win that, they look bloody happy, you know? Luckily there's a great [life] outside of Formula 1, also. I've been part of it a few times, when I wasn't in Formula 1. And it's a great life. And it's pulling a little bit, I would say." he added.
Magnussen is currently P16 in the drivers' championship with just six points from 12 races and three Sprints thus far and has been comfortably outperformed by Nico Hulkenberg in the same machinery, who sits in P11 in the standings with 22 points from the same number of races.