Magnussen's McLaren Struggles: Ron Dennis's Influence Fades

Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren F1 journey unraveled as Ron Dennis’s diminishing influence left the young driver in a desperate situation.

Everything had started so well for Kevin Magnussen in F1: in 2014, the Danish driver finished on the podium in his very first Grand Prix with McLaren F1 in Australia.

But the rest of the year was far less impressive: the MP4-29 was not a competitive car, and by the end of 2014, a certain Fernando Alonso was knocking on Woking’s door, leaving Kevin Magnussen sidelined.

“I won the feeder series and arrived in Formula 1 with a great team,” Kevin Magnussen recalls today, drawing a parallel between his situation and that of Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2025.

“Back then, it was like starting your first year with Mercedes. So I was really… Look at Antonelli now; he’s a young guy joining one of the biggest teams.”

“I know exactly how that feels because I was in that situation. So it’s funny to look back and see… I was in such a strong position, and then McLaren collapsed. It was a bit unfortunate.”

“My arrival at McLaren coincided with the start of the team’s decline.”

“I see it more as bad luck… If you look back in history, McLaren F1, they were always there, right?” he said.

“And the year I arrived was the first where they sank. So it was a bit of bad luck, but yeah, it’s fine. That’s how it goes. You have to be happy to have had 10 years in this sport.”

“I was comprehensively beaten by my world champion teammate Jenson Button during our season together, as a young, inexperienced rookie who particularly struggled to understand the Pirelli tires – which led McLaren to demote me to the reserve driver role when Fernando Alonso became available.”

“Overnight, everything ended, and I really didn’t see it coming,” Kevin Magnussen regrets today.

The former Haas F1 driver also suffered from the internal upheaval at McLaren F1 and the loss of influence of Ron Dennis, who had promoted and recruited him.

“Everyone gave me a sense of security, you know, including Ron Dennis.”

“Who could have imagined that Ron Dennis would end up no longer having a say at McLaren? It was unthinkable at the time. So, because I had his backing, I felt completely safe.”

“Then it turned out he didn’t, and he ended up losing his authority, and I lost my seat. So it was a desperate situation.”

“Ron thought he was going to regain power there. He told me to hang on, not to go elsewhere. Stay here. ‘I might even bring you back mid-season and, if not, for the following year.'”

“So I stayed, and nothing happened. I could see he was losing even more power, so it wasn’t happening. I was in a desperate position.”

Sidelined before making his return with Renault, Kevin Magnussen found comfort in his close family—more with his wife than his father, Jan, the former F1 driver.

“I think it was almost more my friends and my wife—now my wife. She was my girlfriend back then.”

“My father and I, in some ways… We’re both drivers, but we’ve sort of done our own things in a way.”

“He was always there to support me, of course, and he had his own career at the same time because he’s not that old! He only turned 50 last year, so he was just entering his 40s when I got here. So it’s a bit strange to think he was still a young driver in his own way when I arrived!”

“He was very busy with his own things and wasn’t really a big part of all that.”

Kevin Magnussen eventually managed another comeback with Haas F1, where he ended his career in a much more fulfilling way.

“Haas gave me the stability to start over, find my footing, and rebuild myself.”

“I think it was really good; I think I had a very good chance when I got here in 2017 to stabilize myself and try to prove that I deserved a top team.”

“I think I got that opportunity. It didn’t work out, but I think I was fortunate to have at least had that chance.”