Despite playing 'the team game' on a couple of occasions this season, Kevin Magnussen could lose his seat at Haas, the team he has raced with for seven years. With the Danish driver also close to a race ban, rumours have begun to swirl about his future.
Kevin Magnussen, who began his Haas journey in 2017 and resumed it in 2022 after a year out of the sport, could be on his way out at Haas despite helping teammate Nico Hulkenberg on a couple of occasions this year to score points.
Image: bvmsports.com
Hulkenberg, who is already confirmed to move to Kick Sauber next year, has scored six to Magnussen's one point so far this season and is the clear number one driver at the team.
The favourite to replace the German is Oliver Bearman, who replaced Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this season and finished an impressive seventh on his debut. This was the same race that Magnussen first helped his teammate.
Magnussen, who already had 20 seconds worth of penalties, found himself in a position to help teammate Hulkenberg in the pit stop phase and held the pack behind him, allowing Hulkenberg to pit in front of his teammate and score a valuable point for the team.
The second incident occurred in the Miami sprint race, where Magnussen held up Lewis Hamilton and helped Hulkenberg score more valuable team points. Despite losing out, the Brit was calm about Magnussen's defence and understood it from his perspective.
If you told Haas at the start of the season they would be seventh in the standings after six races, they would almost certainly be pleased, especially after rumours at the start of the season indicated that they would be on the same level as Alpine.
But the potential issue they face is Magnussen's penalty point tally. The F1 rulebook states that if a driver reaches 12 penalty points, they will be given a race ban, and Magnussen currently finds himself on 10 after helping his team on a couple of occasions but also other incidents, such as in the Miami race, where he was seen as the one responsible for the collision with Logan Sargeant.
Should Magnussen pick up another two penalty points, Bearman would likely be the replacement for the race where the Danish driver will be unable to compete.
But in terms of next year, Sauber pair Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas are seen as potential candidates for Magnussen's seat, should Haas decide to end their seven-year relationship.
Some may say it's unfair that Magnussen could be shown the door despite helping the team on a couple of occasions this season; others may say his time in Formula 1 should come to an end, but at the moment, there are no strong rumours of Magnussen being replaced for next season, so we shall see if there is any movement from Haas over the next few weeks as the silly season begins.