“Coming back to the team felt very natural” – Kevin Magnussen

After a year away from the sport, Kevin Magnussen makes his highly-anticipated return to Formula 1 this weekend, as the 2022 season kicks-off with the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Magnussen is a late arrival to this season’s grid, after being chosen to replace Nikita Mazepin at the Haas F1 Team, where Magnussen has spent four seasons. In only a year so much has changed for the Danish driver, the team has new faces, including a new team-mate for him in the form of Mick Schumacher, as well as a whole new generation of car to get used to.

Magnussen is overwhelmed with being back at the American team, as he and the entire camp are excited for the season ahead.

“Coming back to the team felt very natural. There are new faces in the team which is exciting and good to see as it shows that the team has been growing since I left. You can really feel that there is an upwards trend of growth in the team which is positive and just the atmosphere was super good. Everyone is excited for this new season.”

Due to the lateness of the decision, Magnussen has missed the vast majority of pre-season, theoretically putting him on the back foot ahead of this weekend. Magnussen is simply aiming to finish the race this weekend and to start the season on a positive note.

“Our objectives for this weekend are – first of all with these new cars – my biggest worry is not finishing the race. I think it’s important to get off to a solid start rather than an explosive one. Of course, it would be nice to get a super good result and that’s 100 percent what we’re gunning for but most importantly it’s to get a good start, some foundation to work from for the rest of the season. In terms of pecking order, I think it’s always hard to say even after the first race. You get a much clearer idea after the first race over winter testing, but it does tend to change quite a lot after the first race. We’ll see, I’m excited!”

“We’ll be able to show everyone we’ve made the right steps” – Mick schumacher

Mick Schumacher will start his second season in the sport this weekend, as the German looks to build on what was a challenging rookie season after scoring zero points. Schumacher can be feeling somewhat optimistic ahead of this weekend, with the VF-22 proving to have some very strong pace at the circuit, reliability however could be a major issue.

Schumacher is hoping that this season will see himself and the team show the entire paddock that they made the right choice, in spending the whole of 2021 developing the VF-22.

“Targets are difficult to set right now. Obviously, we want to be able to put everything together that we’ve learned over the last few days and put it into a good package for the start of the season. In terms of where we stack against the rest of the grid, it’s very hard to say. I think we’re in a good space where we’re feeling positive about many things and hopefully, we’ll be able to show everyone we’ve made the right steps and the car is in a better place than we were last year, and I don’t think that’s awfully difficult to achieve.”

The young German does of course have a new team-mate for this season, Schumacher this year lines up alongside the experienced Kevin Magnussen. Schumacher is very happy to be partnered up with the Danish driver this year, where he hopes to learn a lot from him.

“It’s been a thrilling way for Kevin to come back. It’s a great chance for me to have him in the team as I can learn from him. The feeling within the team is great because they know him so well. He spent four years with them and he’s only been away for one year which isn’t a huge amount of time. I’m sure he’ll get back into the groove quickly and hopefully we can benefit from each other.” 

Credit: Carl Bingham / LAT Images