2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #14: Kevin Magnussen · RaceFans
Kevin Magnussen’s season came alive over the final rounds, once Haas had got the VF-24 working well and he no longer had the threat of a ban hanging over him. The latter change came, of course, because he suffered the indignity of being the first Formula 1 driver to incur a one-race ban by collecting 12 penalty points.
Nonetheless, once Magnussen returned he produced most of his best results of the year. He was in great form at Austin, taking points in the sprint race and running strongly in the grand prix before making a costly second pit stop which the team soon regretted.
Magnussen was in great form in Mexico where he qualified well and raced to seventh place. Persisting with a one-stop strategy in Las Vegas did not pay off but he was back in the points with ninth place in Qatar, passing Albon.
Had he performed at this level all season long, regularly taking Haas into the lower half of the points places, the team’s decision to replace him would have been hard to justify. But the first three-quarters of Magnussen’s 2024 season were less successful.
Kevin Magnussen
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 7 | 20 (x2) |
| GP finish | 7 | 19 (x2) |
| Points | 16 | |
It didn’t help matters that the team often called on him to play something of a sacrificial role to help Nico Hulkenberg. He kept rivals bottled up in Jeddah and Miami, incurring penalties for overstepping the mark in both.
Miami was a ruinous weekend for Magnussen’s season as he also collided with Logan Sargeant and left having picked up enough points to move halfway towards a ban. Given his earlier penalty for an unjustifiable collision with Yuki Tsunoda in China, it seemed inevitable Magnussen’s luck would run out eventually, and it did after he clashed with Pierre Gasly in Monza.
Aside from his tendency to get involved in too many incidents, the root cause of Magnussen’s troubles in 2024 was the fact Hulkenberg routinely out-qualified him. That was always going to make life difficult, but after that strong spell at the end of the year he can at least leave F1 with his head held high.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.
| Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 1
Browse all Formula 1 articles
