{"id":63872,"date":"2025-04-30T20:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63872\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T20:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:50:11","slug":"kevin-magnussen-mclaren-chose-me-over-button-then-the-shareholders-overruled-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63872\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Magnussen: ‘McLaren chose me over Button. Then the shareholders overruled everyone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Magnussen<\/a> had finished on the podium in his first-ever F1 race; he\u2019d shown the speed to compete at the front for McLaren<\/a>; and he had the backing of most of his team. Then, towards the end of 2014, the 22-year-old discovered just how brutal F1 could be.<\/p>\n

In the June issue of Motor Sport<\/a>, Magnussen recalls how the McLaren board voted overwhelmingly to keep him for the following season and drop team-mate Jenson Button<\/a> to make way for Fernando Alonso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seven board members were in favour of the young Dane, including CEO Ron Dennis, with only two opting for Button. Unfortunately for Magnussen, the objectors were Mansour Ojjeh and Shaikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al Khalifa, McLaren\u2019s majority shareholders who simply overruled the vote.<\/p>\n

A year that had started with one of the most successful F1 debuts ended with Magnussen back on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became depressed in 2015,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t mind admitting that. I lived to race, and I wasn\u2019t racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now a veteran of 185 grands prix starts, Magnussen looks back on his F1 career with Matt Bishop in the latest Motor Sport Interview<\/a>, including his sensational finish at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix<\/a> that made him the first rookie since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996<\/a> to score a podium on debut.<\/p>\n

He went on to score points in 12 races on his way to 11th in the standings, three places behind 2009 world champion Button before being demoted to a reserve position for 2015, as Alonso took his place.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Magnussen had a dream debut with McLaren in Australia<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, Mohammed and Mansour had a majority shareholding, so they used that power to overrule everyone else, including Ron, who\u2019d voted for me, and in 2015 I ended up being the reserve driver, which meant nothing really,\u201d said Magnussen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Ron said, \u2018Trust me, you\u2019ll race for us in 2016, or maybe even before the end of the 2015 season.\u2019 And, honestly, I think he was being sincere. That really was his plan for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, when Williams contacted my then manager Dorte [Riis Madsen] about me racing for them in 2016, I talked to \u00c9ric [Boullier, racing director] about it, and he said, \u2018No, stay with us, you\u2019ll race for us with Fernando next season.\u2019 And, honestly, I think he was being sincere, too. So, reassured by both Ron and \u00c9ric, I didn\u2019t pursue the Williams option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnussen got the chance to replace Alonso in the 2015 season-opener<\/a> after the Spaniard\u2019s crash in pre-season testing, but couldn\u2019t even complete a lap as his Honda engine broke down on his way to the grid.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Magnussen believes the pressure put on him was unfair<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

Having pinned his hopes on a future with McLaren, Magnussen became increasingly despondent at being the lack of racing. \u201cI had an offer to do some Super Formula races in Japan, which would have been cool, but Ron said I shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2016, when Stoffel was the McLaren reserve driver, Ron let him race in Super Formula, and he loved it, winning a couple of races, so I don\u2019t know why Ron didn\u2019t allow me to do the same thing the year before, but anyway he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ridiculous expectations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Magnussen\u2019s podium in the Australian GP remained his best F1 race result in a career where he drove for McLaren, Renault and Haas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Magnussen had finished on the podium in his first-ever F1 race; he\u2019d shown the speed to compete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,32906,1710,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-63872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-kevin-magnussen","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114428891890209602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}