By his own admission, Kevin Magnussen has never worked so openly with a teammate in Formula One as he has this season with Mick Schumacher
In a complete surprise, Haas driver Mick Schumacher got a new teammate in Kevin Magnussen shortly before the 2022 Formula 1 season. After the German had an easy time against Nikita Masepin at Haas last year, Magnussen is a first real measuring stick for Schumacher in Formula 1.
In the last edition of the Formula 1 podcast ‘Beyond The Grid’, Kevin Magnussen commented on his new team-mate and gave insights into working with Schumacher. What particularly strikes him about the German is his willingness to learn, as Schumacher asks an extraordinary amount of questions in the team.
“That doesn’t happen too often between drivers because you might be too proud to ask questions or it might be seen as a weakness. But he doesn’t care about that, he just wants to learn. Also, his feedback in the meetings is very good,” Magnussen said.
Magnussen: Have nothing to hide from Mick
Furthermore, according to the Dane, Schumacher also has the right attitude, as he does not look for excuses and is always honest with himself and the team, especially in the case of self-inflicted mistakes.
Although Magnussen currently sees himself in the role of team leader due to his experience, he affirms that Schumacher’s opinion carries a lot of weight in the team. “Mick is very good, even though he has just one year’s experience. So it’s not like everyone just listens to me and no one listens to Mick, because it’s very balanced,” explains the Dane.
“It’s not as big a difference as you might think. I try to be open with Mick and I don’t think I have to hide anything from him,” he adds. Magnussen says Schumacher is his first teammate in Formula One with whom he is so open because he sees the good of the team as paramount.
“If I can help him, then it helps the team and then again that’s good for me. I am much more relaxed there this time. If he gets faster than me because I helped him, then I can learn from him and get better again myself. And that’s how it should be, taking each other to a new level and I hope it will be like that. “
Magnussen: Mick more than deserves Formula 1 cockpit
In addition to working together, he also admires Schumacher’s character traits: “He’s super nice, very down-to-earth, polite and he gets on well with everyone. Everyone likes him in the team,” he says.
In addition, Magnussen says Schumacher more than deserves the Formula One cockpit because of his titles in Formula 2 and Formula 3: “He has a very hard time with his surname because some people think he’s only here because his name is Schumacher.”
“But he has actually maybe done more than necessary to get into Formula 1. Some drivers are in Formula 1 and didn’t win Formula 3, like myself for example. But also many other Formula 1 drivers didn’t win everything before,” Magnussen says.
Asked about his own ambitions in Formula 1, the 29-year-old says: “I want to win! It’s strange because it was always my life’s dream to win in Formula 1 and become world champion, but last year I had to make peace with the fact that it wasn’t going to work out. But now I’m back and I can dig out the old dreams again!”
