What Nico Hulkenberg noticed in Kevin Magnussen’s data before his Haas exit was confirmed

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Kevin Magnussen is leaving Haas at the end of the season, the team announced ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. He’s in the final year of his contract, and he won’t be offered an extension.

Magnussen is in his second spell with Haas after initially joining back in 2017. He would spend four seasons alongside Romain Grosjean before the team decided to go in a different direction.

They fielded two rookies in 2021, with Mick Schumacher partnering Nikita Mazepin. However, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions on athletes cost Mazepin his place on the grid, Haas picked up the phone and called the Dane.

He got the better of Schumacher in 2022 and has gone up against Nico Hulkenberg over the past two years. Hulkenberg has scored 31 points in that time, while Magnussen has only managed eight.

The former McLaren driver has also damaged his reputation by accumulating 10 penalty points. That puts him on the verge of a race ban, automatically triggered when a driver hits 12.

The threat of a suspension will be hanging over Magnussen until the end of the season. Should he remain on the grid, it will carry over into the start of 2025 too.

Nico Hulkenberg says gap to Kevin Magnussen was smaller than it looked

Hulkenberg leads Magnussen 10-1 in the race-day head-to-head this year and is also beating him 8-3 in qualifying. The German has reached Q3 on six occasions, while Magnussen has yet to do so at all.

However, Hulkenberg insists that the gap isn’t as large as it may seem externally. Having looked over Magnussen’s data, he knows that it comes down to fine margins.

The 36-year-old is also on his way out of Haas at the end of the season. He’s signed a multi-year deal with Sauber ahead of their transition to Audi, with Oliver Bearman already confirmed as his replacement.

“There were a few moments when details made the difference that might seem big to the spectators,” he said, via Speedweek. “But if you know the data like I do, you can see that it was actually small things that caused the different results.”

Esteban Ocon to replace Kevin Magnussen at Haas

Out of respect for Magnussen, the team have announced his departure before confirming a new signing. But the belief is that Esteban Ocon has already signed his Haas contract.

Ayao Komatsu has a strong relationship with Ocon from their time at Lotus, when the Frenchman was a test driver. He’s agreed to leave Alpine at the end of 2024.

He’s collided with his teammate on six occasions during his career, which may be a concern to some suitors. But Komatsu will see him as a coup given that he’s won a race (the 2021 Hungarian GP) and finished on the podium three times.

James Vowles feels that the F1 paddock has been ‘very hard’ on Ocon after he crashed into Pierre Gasly in Monaco. They worked together at Mercedes, the team who continue to manage the driver’s career.

Ocon even had a seat fitting with Williams to establish whether he could race for the team in 2025. But it’s Haas who appear to have won the race, forming an all-new driver lineup for the second time in five seasons.