Kevin Magnussen says that he will not be any friendlier on the race track this year after getting complaints from fellow drivers in 2017. In two noticeable incidents, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso criticised the aggressiveness of the Dane's driving.
Magnussen is heading into his fourth year in Formula 1, his second with Haas. Having built up a 'bad boy' reputation throughout the 2017 season, Magnussen says that he is keen to avoid any penalties - but he will not change his driving style.
"I look at it like this," he told BT newspaper. "If I get a penalty, then I've made a mistake. But I only got one penalty last year so I need to learn from that. So this year, I'm going to try to drive just as hard without getting any penalties. That doesn't mean I'm going to be any more friendly on the track. I hope to be even harder, just without any penalty."
Having joined the grid in 2014 with McLaren, Magnussen was forced to step aside for 2015 when Alonso joined the team. After a year at Renault in 2016, he moved to Haas last year and will now head into his second season with the American squad.
And he admits he is happy at the team and would is keen to remain there beyond 2018: "I'm happy to be here with Haas, and my starting point is that I want to stay," he said. "Therefore, I do not have much stress. Of course it would always be nice to be notified as early as possible."
Fergal Walsh
boudy
Posts: 1,168
When you drive for a team like Haas you must fight for every point KMAG will give you that. Grosjean I would like to see replaced with an more positive driver. His moaning about the car is interesting in that it's him that sets the car up so he only has himself to blame for his setup issues. I t... [Read more]