Kevin Magnussen’s time in Formula 1 came to an end with a disappointing final season at Haas. Here are the facts and statistics from Magnussen’s 2020 F1 season.
Kevin Magnussen was the only driver who did not finish any race in a position lower than where he started in 2020. That statistic perhaps says more about the Haas’ lack of qualifying pace, with Magnussen recording fourteen Q1 exits from the seventeen races this season. Magnussen also failed to finish seven races this year, recording the most retirements of any driver.
The Dane scored a solitary point in 2020, finishing in tenth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He had finished the race in ninth place on the track, but was demoted following a time penalty. More often than not Magnussen had the upper hand on team-mate Romain Grosjean in qualifying, winning their qualifying battle 8-7.
Magnussen exits the Haas team at the end of 2020, bringing to an end his career in F1, at least for the time being. He will instead race in the IMSA series in 2021. Magnussen leaves F1 having made 119 starts and having scored 158 points. He remains one of only six drivers to have recorded their only podium finish on their Formula 1 debut.
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RACE STATISTICS
- Championship Position: 20th
- Total Points: 1
- % of teams’ points scored: 33%
- Points Scoring Races: 1
- Best finish: 10th (Hungary)
- Number of starts: 17
- Number of non-finishes: 7
- Number of finishes: 10
- Laps Led: 0
- Laps Complete: 814
- % of Laps Complete: 78.50%
- Distance Covered: 4053.805km
- Laps Raced in the Top 10: 128
- Laps Raced in the Top 5: 32
- Laps Raced in the Top 3: 11
- Races gained positions in: 9
- Races lost positions in: 0
- Finished where started: 1
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QUALIFYING STATISTICS
- Q3 Appearances: 0
- Q2 Exits: 3
- Q1 Exits: 14
- Best Qualifying Position: 15th (x3)
- Worst Qualifying Position: 20th (Belgium, Tuscany)
- Average Qualifying Position: 16.88
- Average Grid Position: 16.88
- Average Gap to own potential qualifying pace: +0.093s
- Achieved own ultimate pace: 6
- Beat team-mate in how many qualifying sectors: 32
- Beaten by team-mate in how many qualifying sectors: 19
- Average gap to team-mate per sector in qualifying: -0.068s
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A STATISTIC FROM EVERY GRAND PRIX
Austria: Kevin Magnussen qualified fifth at the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix – but the result was quite different one year on. In 2020, Magnussen managed only sixteenth on the grid, recording Haas’ first Q1 exit at the Red Bull Ring.
Styria: For a seventh consecutive race, Kevin Magnussen failed to score at the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix. It’s the fourth time in the Danish driver’s career that he has failed to score at seven or more consecutive races. He also failed to score for seven races between the 2016 Malaysia & 2017 Australian Grands Prix and the 2017 Austrian & Malaysia Grands Prix, and failed to score at ten consecutive events between the 2016 Spanish & Italian Grands Prix.
Hungary: Kevin Magnussen finished the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix in ninth place, but a post race penalty moved him down to tenth in the final result. Nevertheless, this was the first time Haas have scored since the 2019 Russian Grand Prix. Magnussen was only the second driver to score having started from the pit-lane at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The other driver to have done so is Lewis Hamilton, who started in the pits in 2014.
Britain: For a second year in a row, Kevin Magnussen retired as a result of contact in the early stages of the British Grand Prix. He becomes the third driver to be the first retirement at Silverstone in two consecutive years, after Eddie Irvine in 1994 & 1995 and Mark Webber in 2006 & 2007.
70th Anniversary: For a third Silverstone race in a row, Kevin Magnussen was the first retirement of the Grand Prix. He’s the first driver to have been the first retirement of the race on three consecutive visits to Silverstone and the first driver to be the first retirement of two consecutive races since Fernando Alonso at the 2018 United States and Mexican Grands Prix. Only Andrea de Cesaris, Ivan Capelli, Eddie Irvine, Pedro Diniz and Riccardo Patrese have had more consecutive DNFs at Silverstone.
Spain: Kevin Magnussen’s record of never being eliminated in Q1 at the Spanish Grand Prix came to an end in 2020, with his first Q1 exit in six appearances at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Belgium: Kevin Magnussen qualified in last place for the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix and recorded his first Q1 exit at the Spa Francorchamps circuit. It was the sixth time that the Dane has qualified 20th or lower; the first time he has done so since the 2017 United States Grand Prix.
Italy: Kevin Magnussen retired from the Italian Grand Prix for a second consecutive year. He became the first driver to have recorded four retirements in 2020.
Tuscany: After qualifying last for the second time in the past three races, Kevin Magnussen recorded his fifth retirement of the season at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix. Magnussen recorded as many retirements in the first nine races of 2020 as he did in total over the previous two seasons.
Russia: With twelfth place, Kevin Magnussen equalled his second-best result of the season to date at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix. He also finished twelfth at the Styrian Grand Prix. It was the first time that Magnussen failed to score in Russia since 2017.
Eifel: Kevin Magnussen failed to score at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix. It was the eight consecutive race in which he has not scored – the second longest streak in his career. The only longer period in which Magnussen has failed to score was in the ten races between the 2016 Spanish and Italian Grands Prix.
Portugal: Qualifying in nineteenth place for the Portuguese Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen recorded the ninth back row qualification of his F1 career. He went on to finish the race in sixteenth place. It was the first time he finished sixteenth since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix.
Emilia Romagna: After retiring from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen equalled the longest point-less streak in his F1 career. This was his tenth successive race without scoring. He last failed to score at ten successive races between the 2016 Spanish and Italian Grands Prix.
Turkey: Kevin Magnussen recorded his seventh retirement of the 2020 season and failed to score for an eleventh consecutive race. That makes this the longest point-less streak of his F1 career.
Bahrain: Kevin Magnussen failed to reach Q3 at the Bahrain Grand Prix for the first time since 2017 and joined Adrian Sutil, Marcus Ericsson, Pastor Maldonado and Takuma Sato as the fifth driver who has recorded three Q1 exits at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Sakhir: Kevin Magnussen finished fifteenth in the Sakhir Grand Prix. It was his best result since finishing thirteenth in the Eifel Grand Prix.
Abu Dhabi: On his final Formula 1 appearance, Kevin Magnussen finished in eighteenth place for the second time in his career. He last finished eighteenth at the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix. His nineteenth place in the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix is the only time that Magnussen has finished a race in a worse position.