Magnussen on F1 comeback: 'It hurt a little bit to watch races'

Kevin Magnussen has looked back on his comeback in Formula 1. The Danish driver made a surprising return to his former team Haas at the beginning of the season. Magnussen says that leaving the sport did hurt a bit.

With the departure of Nikita Mazepin, a seat suddenly became available at Haas after the first three test days of 2022. Haas took the decision to bring its old driver Magnussen back to the sport, and that proved to be the right decision. The Dane has already collected 22 points and has helped the team to seventh in the Constructors' Championship.

"I was very happy that I had kept a life going outside of Formula 1. I still raced, I raced a lot of things. I did Le Mans with my dad as a team mate, that was a lot of fun and, you know, raced an IndyCar, raced at Daytona in sports cars and I had a lot of fun. And I didn't feel like I was missing out on Formula 1," the Haas driver tells F1.com.

Magnussen appreciates F1 return

"But when I watched the races it hurt a little bit that I knew I wasn't going to do that again." As a result, Magnussen knows he will miss the sport when he actually retires, as he considers it a massive privilege to be back in F1. "Once you kind of lose it and get it back, it's very cool to be a Formula 1 driver.”

Magnussen's comeback could hardly have started better, as he took fifth place in the opening race of the season. Especially after Haas' dramatically poor 2021 season, the Dane's results in the first few races came as a welcome surprise. Haas introduced new upgrades just before the summer break and hopes to improve its performance from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards.