Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2018

Magnussen: I fought my life to reach F1, now I’m driving around like a grandmother

2018 Mexican Grand Prix

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Kevin Magnussen hit out at Formula 1’s rules after his United States Grand Prix disqualification but rival teams say fuel saving is part of the sport.

The Haas driver was stripped of ninth place in Sunday’s race after he was found to have used 170 grams more fuel than the 105kg limit.

Magnussen admitted losing the points was a disappointment. “It was only a P9 but it was crucial points and we want to get all the points that we want,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.

“But it was more in terms of being a passionate Formula 1 fan that I am.

“I’ve fought my whole life to get to Formula 1, to be able to race against the best people and race the fastest cars at the top of motorsport. And then you’re driving around like a grandmother.

“It’s disappointing. You get disappointed and frustrated because you’re angry with yourself because you haven’t done enough with the rules that they are. But you also get frustrated with the rules more than anything because they’re stupid and it should be changed.”

Team radio messages from the race revealed Haas’s rivals Renault and Force India realised earlier in the race that they were not going to be lapped by the race leaders and therefore needed to ensure they had enough fuel for the full race distance. Haas only warned Magnussen late in the race that he urgently needed to save fuel.

“It was very difficult for me to know how critical is the situation and where are the leaders, are they far behind, what was the best outcome we can get. It’s a lot easier if you have a screen with all the gaps and laps and all that.

“I didn’t know whether the next guy that I was fighting was in front or behind the leaders. You know. It’s difficult. When you’re in the car. I think it is a team effort. And we didn’t manage the shitty situation that we were in well enough.”

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However one of Haas’s rivals pointed out fuel saving has often been a factor in F1 in the past.

“It’s in the regulations and it’s not new that in Formula 1 you have to save fuel,” said Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost. “Remember [Alain] Prost at Hockenheim [in 1986] he had to push his car.

“So it’s in the regulation and we have to respect it. You will never have enough fuel or tyres that you can race 60 laps on the limit. It’s simply not possible. We all know this. It depends then how clever the driver is, how clever the team operates.”

Otmar Szafnauer, whose driver Esteban Ocon was also disqualified due to a fuel-related infringement, said “I guess we weren’t so clever to stay in the regulations.”

The Force India team principal pointed out that teams would have their drivers save fuel even if there were no restrictions.

“Even if you don’t have those fuel limits we will always be making trade-offs between how to fuel the car such that we get to the end in the shortest amount of time. Even in the past where we didn’t have a fuel limit you fuel it to the point where the total race time is lowest. And that sometimes means fuel saving.”

“And to the contrary if we’re fuel-saving at a different time to someone else is that could help overtaking,” he added.

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10 comments on “Magnussen: I fought my life to reach F1, now I’m driving around like a grandmother”

  1. So would it be harsh to tell Magnussen ‘if you do not like it, why not go somewhere else’? … would be his style, so I think he’d have to also take that with some grace.

    Basically, the rival teams (and his own team manager too) are right: under-fuelling brings advantages, even if it is a somewhat calculated risk, part of the job. Others did good racing while staying within the limits.

    1. Almost every category of motor racing requires fuel conservation as part of the race strategy, from NASCAR to Le Mans. Ask Alexander Rossi how he won the Indy 500.

  2. I’m sure that in his grandmothers time, there were far more drivers who had to be carefull with fuel not to stop out on track. The reason is simple – the team let him use more fuel during the race to try and gain a place. it didn’t work and on top, they only realized too late that they did not have a lap to spare because they would not be lapped.

    Simple error. they almost managed to “catch up” but just not quite. I am sure that next time both the driver and the team will be more aware of it.

  3. Although he has a point, it still wouldn’t really make a difference if the races were a lap or two shorter or the fuel allowance was increased (which is indeed going to happen for next season), etc., as the teams tend to under-fuel the cars for the races, i.e., start them under-fuelled to save weight as it’s usually faster that way than driving throughout a race at full-throttle all the time by starting with the maximum allowance of the tank capacity. The only way to prevent that if they really wanted would be to make it mandatory to start the races with precisely the maximum allowance of 105 kg (110 next season), not any less than that. Fuel saving has always existed in F1 to some extent even during the refuelling era.

  4. My grannie would be unimpressed with his statement.

  5. Busy grandmothers on a mission rarely check their mirrors when changing lanes, so… K-Mag’s analogy makes sense. ;-)

    1. Beautiful…
      And compare the ‘Haas’ reaction to the ‘ForceIndia’ reaction…

    2. +1, i was thinking the same

  6. José Lopes da Silva
    27th October 2018, 0:06

    Someone tell him about the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix.

  7. To be fair .. a lot of drivers have to deal with fuel saving and drive like a “grandmother” at times. Magnussen though… is driving around like an f ing stupid grandmother.

    I find this whining and blaming of F1’s regulations absolutely unnecessary. You and your team screwed up by adding extra fuel. Heck .. you broke the rules and you got caught. There’s absolutely no need to talk about your life history, philosophy of racing and point fingers at the world for how things are right.

    Just get on with it.

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