Kevin Magnussen says he will take few more races to gain full fitness required for F1 and he is trying to balance training and recovery.
The opening two Grands Prix were a tremendous fillip for Haas and F1 returnee Magnussen. Back in Grand Prix by default to a large extent, an eye-opening performance in Bahrain followed by a further points scoring position at Saudi Arabia a week later.
However, it wasn’t such a happy weekend for the team in Australia as they encountered a number of issues but they will get there. On a personal level, fitness for drivers is an integral part of motorsport and previously, Magnussen had alluded to fitness with particular reference to his neck area, particularly after Bahrain.
Looking back at that Magnussen agreed that it was difficult in Bahrain and Jeddah. Even though he has regained fitness level since then but he notes it will still take some time to regain full fitness which he hopes he will in the races to come.
“My neck is okay now but it has been sore ever since because I trained it so much,” said Magnussen to media including FormulaRapida.net. “I do not think it was holding me back in the race in Saudi. I could not hold my head, so I was leaning on the headrest basically from the beginning of the race and I got used to driving like that during the race.
“I don’t think it was costing me lap time but qualifying at Jeddah; in Q3 I couldn’t drive on the last run so I got compromised there but yes I mean it will take a few races and strength will build back but it is tough at the moment but look I am having fun. To be honest, I haven’t really done much training in the last year and a half, it’s been pretty limited.
“I kept active but I didn’t think I needed to be that fit, so it’s a bit of a surprise now but I am training now as much as I can. There is no point training five hours a day because you will just run yourself out of energy and because you have to recover as well to build fitness but I am really trying to optimise my time to find the right balance between training and recovery.
“I’m glad I’ve got some of the best people in the world looking after me in Denmark, so I am in good hands so it’s going to be a bit of a tough journey to get back to full F1 fitness but I’m also enjoying it. It’s nice to be back in good old routines. It’s tough but fun,” summed up Magnussen.
If we look at this in a roundabout way, Magnussen got a great result in Bahrain when not “totally” fit followed by another good result in Jeddah. By his own admission, it will take him some time to be up to the fitness place he needs to be. This coupled with a massively improved Haas this year should mean more points and dare we say a possible podium perhaps for the Anglo American team.
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