kevin magnussen · Biography

Kevin Jan Magnussen was born on 5 October 1992 in Roskilde, on the Danish island of Zealand. He is the son of Jan Magnussen, a former Formula One driver and class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He started out in karting and came through the junior single-seater ranks in Denmark, Germany and Britain before reaching Formula One with McLaren in 2014. Between 2014 and 2024 he started 185 Grands Prix for McLaren, Renault and Haas. From 2025 he raced sports prototypes as a BMW factory driver.

Junior career

His first title came in 2008, when he won the Danish Formula Ford championship with 11 victories from 15 races. That same year he made several appearances in Germany's ADAC Formel Masters. A lack of funding then stalled his career, and he worked as a welder until sponsorship came through. In 2009 he finished runner-up to António Félix da Costa in Formula Renault 2.0 NEC and seventh in the Eurocup. A year later he was third in German Formula Three and took the rookie title.

In 2011 he moved to British Formula Three with Carlin, won seven races and finished second behind Felipe Nasr; he was also third at the Masters of Formula 3. Carlin took him into Formula Renault 3.5 in 2012, where he won at Spa and ended the year seventh. The breakthrough came in 2013 with DAMS: five wins, eight pole positions and 13 podiums brought him the Formula Renault 3.5 title, 60 points clear of Stoffel Vandoorne.

McLaren debut

McLaren, whose young driver programme he belonged to, gave him a race seat for 2014 alongside Jenson Button, replacing Sergio Pérez. On his debut at the Australian Grand Prix in March 2014 he crossed the line third and was classified second after Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification. No debutant had finished that high since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996, and it remained the only podium of his Formula One career. He ended the season 11th with 55 points.

For 2015 Fernando Alonso took his seat and Magnussen became reserve and test driver. He stood in for Alonso at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but an engine failure on the formation lap meant he never took the start. McLaren released him at the end of the year.

Renault and the first Haas years

Renault signed him in 2016 for its return as a works team, with Jolyon Palmer as his team-mate. Seventh place in Russia was his best result, and he finished 16th with seven points. In 2017 he joined Haas, where he spent four seasons alongside Romain Grosjean. Seventh in Azerbaijan helped him to 14th overall with 19 points that year. His strongest season came in 2018: fifth in Austria, a first fastest lap in Singapore and ninth in the championship with 56 points, his best final ranking. Harder years followed for the American team. Magnussen was 16th with 20 points in 2019 and 20th with a single point in 2020, after which both he and Grosjean left Haas.

A year in sports cars

Out of Formula One, he joined Chip Ganassi Racing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2021, sharing a Cadillac prototype with Renger van der Zande. The pair won at Detroit and finished seventh in the standings. That year he also made a one-off IndyCar start at Road America with Arrow McLaren, replacing the injured Felix Rosenqvist, and raced at Le Mans in a High Class Racing LMP2 car with his father and Anders Fjordbach, finishing 17th in class.

Return to Haas

Shortly before the 2022 season, Haas dropped Nikita Mazepin and recalled Magnussen, who was released from his Peugeot and Ganassi contracts. At the São Paulo Grand Prix in November 2022 he took pole position, the first of his career and the first for Haas. He finished the year 13th with 25 points, ahead of team-mate Mick Schumacher. In 2023, with Nico Hülkenberg in the other car, he scored three points and placed 19th.

Before the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix he announced he would leave the team at the end of the year. After the Italian Grand Prix, a penalty for a collision with Pierre Gasly took his super licence tally to the level that triggers a one-race ban, the first since Grosjean's in 2012. Oliver Bearman replaced him in Azerbaijan and again in São Paulo, where illness ruled Magnussen out. He finished the season 15th with 16 points. His Formula One career totalled 185 starts, one podium, one pole, three fastest laps and 202 points.

BMW and endurance racing

In 2025 he became a BMW M Motorsport factory driver. He raced the BMW M Hybrid V8 in the World Endurance Championship with BMW M Team WRT, Le Mans included, and contested three IMSA rounds with BMW M Team RLL, among them the Daytona 24 Hours. He finished 20th in the WEC standings with 27 points. In June 2026 he made his NASCAR Cup Series debut on the street course at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, driving Trackhouse Racing's No. 91 Chevrolet. On 12 July 2026 he won the 6 Hours of São Paulo with Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor in the No. 15 BMW, his first victory in the WEC.