No Formula 1 team willing to offer ‘ridiculous’ driver a contract for the 2025 season

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The Formula 1 driver’s market has been more active this season than in many of the previous years and it doesn’t look like the chatter is going to slow down any time soon.

While there are technically only half a dozen seats left to fill ahead of the 2025 campaign, Red Bull could throw the market wide open during the summer break with at least one of their drivers at risk.

Sergio Perez is fighting to save his Red Bull seat and needs to impress in Hungary and Belgium to stop Christian Horner and Helmut Marko from making a very difficult decision.

Right now, almost every driver who’s still a free agent is waiting to see what Carlos Sainz does.

He’s been linked with nearly every team that still has an available seat and doesn’t appear to be in any rush to put pen to paper on a contract for 2025.

A report from the Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport has been talking about the only move on the grid that doesn’t appear to be connected to Sainz’s decision.

Haas have already signed Oliver Bearman for next season after a brilliant cameo in Saudi Arabia for Ferrari in place of Sainz and his strong running in testing for the American outfit.

Esteban Ocon is set to join Bearman at Haas which completes their line-up and makes them the first team to confirm they’ll be completely changing their driver pairing for next season.

Nico Hulkenberg has already signed a deal with Sauber for 2025 ahead of Audi’s takeover the following year.

However, Kevin Magnussen has been left in the lurch after Haas confirmed his departure from the team on Thursday at the end of the season and it looks like no team is willing to offer the £75,000-a-week driver a contract for next season.

Magnussen was described by Nico Rosberg as a ‘ridiculous’ driver at the Chinese Grand Prix while commentating on Sky Sports F1 this season.

Unfortunately, that descriptor hasn’t always been positive this year which may be why he’s struggling to extend his time in the sport.

READ MORE: Haas driver Kevin Magnussen’s life outside F1 from wife and daughters to net worth

No Formula 1 team is willing to offer Kevin Magnussen a contract for 2025

The report from Gazzetta suggests that an announcement that Ocon is going to join Haas is imminent.

They outline the new line-up the team will be running in 2025 with both Hulkenberg and Magnussen being replaced.

It’s believed that Magnussen’s future looks ‘increasingly distant’ from Formula 1 as a result of this decision.

In fact, ‘none of the teams’ who still have a seat available for next season seem to be ‘willing’ to make Magnussen an offer that would see him stay in F1.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari relationship

Kevin Magnussen looks set to leave Formula 1 after nearly 200 races

Magnussen has taken part in 176 Grand Prix weekends in his career thus far and if he doesn’t secure a contract for 2025, it’s hard to see him reaching the 200 mark during his career.

He’s already had to take two breaks in his F1 career and it’s hard to see him coming back for a fourth spell if he’s not on the grid next season.

Lawrence Barretto admitted he got the impression from Magnussen that he’s preparing for life away from Formula 1 already which suggests he already knows his fate.

It’s also been suggested Magnussen wouldn’t be too upset to leave F1 at the end of the year and he may already be looking at opportunities to race elsewhere.

Magnussen’s antics at the beginning of the season earned Haas some vital points but also saw him tally up plenty of penalty points too.

That may be putting off some team principals from approaching him, with a race ban not far away at this stage of the campaign.