Haas Formula 1 boss Gunther Steiner says Kevin Magnussen was the only driver he held talks with over replacing Nikita Mazepin for this season.
Magnussen makes a shock return to F1 this year after Haas terminated Mazepin’s contract with immediate effect, rejoining the team whom he drove for from 2017 to 2020.
Steiner revealed he contacted Magnussen last week after Haas team owner Gene Haas expressed his interest in trying to convince the Dane to consider coming back to F1.
While Magnussen was contracted to both Chip Ganassi and Peugeot for 2022, he agreed to sign a multi-year deal with Haas to accept the opportunity to return to F1.
“When what happened, happened, we parted company with Nikita, I was discussing with Gene who to put in the car, who’s available,” said Steiner, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “The same old story, ups and downs, and lefts and rights.
“Kevin’s name came up, and Gene said, ‘Do you think Kevin would come back?’ And I said ‘I have no idea, I don’t know, but I can call him up.’ And I called him up, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m interested.’”
Magnussen admitted he had been surprised when Haas approached him, but was clear the opportunity to return to F1 was too good to refuse.
Having left F1 at the end of 2020, due what Magnussen felt was a lack of motivation, he had accepted that a return to the series in the future was unlikely.
“I kind of truly accepted that F1 was a closed chapter, but then of course I saw Mazepin was out of Haas,” Magnussen said, as quoted by Motorsport Week.
“I didn’t think I had a chance to go in there because I still don’t bring a lot other than just my driving skills to a team.
“So I thought that it was still not going to be a possibility, then Gunther called me, and it was a big surprise. I felt really excited when he called me and asked if I wanted to come back.
“I had some thoughts about what if we’re going to run it back again, if it’s going to be fun or not, but with this regulation change there’s some opportunity that things will be a little better.
“I thought that opportunity was too good to let down and also thought about the fact I’m still only 29 years old, so there’s not a lot of reasons to not take this opportunity, especially given how I felt when Gunther called me, I was so happy.”
Although Magnussen had deals in place to race in sports cars this year, Steiner was confident Haas to work around the “hurdles” during negotiations.
“I never thought it goes sideways,” Steiner said. ” I always worked on it actively. I didn’t speak with anybody else, with any other driver, I was just confident that it will happen. Obviously then there were a few difficulties.
“But when you do any deal at this level you know that it will be difficult, especially if we are involved, everything is more difficult!
“But then you just keep on working on it and solve the difficulties, and find solutions. I mean, once we decided, I wouldn’t say it went smooth, but there were a few hurdles in the way. But we just got them out of the way, the hurdles.”
Magnussen, who has 119 grand prix starts, will partner Mick Schumacher, and Steiner believes having someone of Magnussen’s experience was a better option for the team than running an all-rookie line up like last year.
“You always look what worked, and the position we found ourselves in, it was like, how we can bring the team forward the quickest way with the least amount of risk? And that was Kevin, because we know him, he worked with us.” Steiner said.
“Taking another rookie, we would face again the same problem, or the same issue, we wouldn’t know where we are, because we have no reference. Maybe in the back of your head you think, let’s go the safe route, and that’s what we did.
“But still, it’s not a mega safe. It’s just like do something we know which works, and if you have got the opportunity to change that. And that’s what we did.”
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