Kevin Magnussen has excelled in return to F1 despite missing a key component of training that all drivers need
- Kevin Magnussen was a late addition to the F1 grid, replacing Nikita Mazepin at Haas on the eve of the season.
- Magnussen had already started his second season in IMSA and had not trained in the offseason for F1 cars.
Kevin Magnussen has been one of the better surprises of the 2022 Formula One season, but his late addition to the grid was a pain in the neck — literally.
Magnussen returned to F1 on the eve of the season, replacing Russian driver Nikita Mazepin at Haas following the invasion of Ukraine.
After spending seven years in F1, Magnussen lost his seat at Haas following the 2020 season. He spent the 2021 season racing in the North American IMSA series and was set to do so again this year. He even raced in the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona to start the season.
However, because he was expecting to race IMSA again, it had been about 18 months since he adequately trained for driving an F1 car. Specifically, he missed out on preparing his neck to withstand the extreme G-forces F1 drivers experience on their heads.
During an interview with Tom Kollmar and Michel Milewski for the German magazine Sport Bild, Magnussen was asked if he was surprised by his success early in the season.
"A little bit, yes," Magnussen said. "Particularly because of the neck muscles. I did that year without cockpit training. The pressure in the car is so great that the body only gets used to the forces while driving. When I learned a week before the opening race in Bahrain that I would race, I had to immediately start with fitness sessions ... After the first two races, I was hardly able to hold my head up."
This video shows some of the neck training F1 drivers must go through.
Kevin Magnussen had to play catch up
During an interview with Insider earlier this season, McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo explained why what Magnussen missed was so important. Ricciardo noted that most of the training they need for the season is achieved during the offseason, and in between races, it is more about recovery.
"Through the season, it's more recovery," Ricciardo said. "Once you kind of get into the routine of racing, we're in the car then three days a week, and that keeps us actually in very good condition and specifically, race condition ... But in the preseason where you are really trying to obviously build yourself up, we'll train like, I guess, six days a week, and it's kind of a session in the morning session in the evening, and that'll be a mixture of like cardio training, strength training."
Ricciardo noted that one of the problems with training during the season is that there is just not a lot of time in their schedule for it.
"After a race, Monday would just be like chilling out, recovery," Ricciardo said. "Then Tuesday would be like a little bit of light training, maybe like a little bit of cycling or something. And then Wednesday, you'll do like maybe a little bit of core training and some neck strength stuff."
So while other drivers like Ricciardo are doing some light neck work between races to maintain strength, Magnussen was playing catch up.
Still, it hasn't hurt his performance.
After Haas failed to secure a single point in 2021, with their best finish for either driver being 12th, Magnussen has four top-1o finishes in the first 10 races of 2022. He is also 12th in points in a car that appears to be improving as the season progresses.
Not bad for a driver with a sore neck who wasn't supposed to be in F1.