Kevin Magnussen says the afterlife after F1 as he calls will be good as there is worthy championships to race in from his previous experience.
With his Haas seat gone, Magnussen is now starring at F1 exit after the 2024 season. If it happens, this will be his second time out of the sport. The last time he was out, he started competing in IMSA in America and had a IndyCar outing too.
Even though he wishes to stay back and compete in F1, he will be fine with the ‘afterlife’ as he calls. Having had the experience of racing outside, he feels he is in a good place to compete at high-level championships if he is out of it.
“I know a lot of people outside,” said Magnussen to media. “When do you go into the box of “now I’m exploring”? It’s like I just talk to people, I’m in touch with everyone, even when I knew I had a contract with someone in the next year, I was still talking to people. I talk to people, of course, but it’s not like I’m in contract negotiations with anyone or anything like that.
“I know what the situation is like in some of the interesting spots outside of Formula 1 in case I need to move on. In 2021, I was out of F1, but I was racing in IMSA. It’s actually quite a busy schedule. You’re going to America 11 or 12 times during the year, and it wasn’t like a quiet year, but it was at least, a very different year.
“Remember, my whole life since I was a little kid was about getting to Formula 1, and then had ten years in the sport. So it it was it was interesting and kind of exciting to see a different side of life in 2021. And it wasn’t frightening, it was it was actually very positive and fun.
“I think that changed my mindset in terms of…I had a lot of fear before that, of losing Formula 1 because I didn’t know what was on the outside. And that kind of showed me that, hold on to Formula 1 as long as you can, but don’t fear the outside. Afterlife it’s going to be good, call it the afterlife. It’s like I could die of it.
“It’s not,” summed up Magnussen. He doesn’t think that he will be in a reserve role, though. An advisor? He could probably take that if offered. “I doubt I would be interested in a reserve driver role,” said the Dane. “If I’m able to take some kind of role with Haas, it means that I didn’t land a seat in Formula 1, of course.
“And in that case I’d call it a day in Formula 1. I wouldn’t want to just go to every race and I’d want to focus on other things that would be exciting and fulfilling for me. Being a reserve driver, waiting around for someone to break his leg, I don’t think that’s very exciting,” summed up Magnussen.
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on Haas’ decision
Here’s Nico Hulkenberg on Haas’ revival
Here’s Nico Hulkenberg on Audi’s change of team boss
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