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LONDON: Guenther Steiner revived Kevin Magnussen’s Formula One career two years ago, but the former Haas team boss now believes his favourite Dane may need to be replaced, along with a number of other long-serving drivers at the team.
Magnussen, 31, has five points in 12 races this season, while Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg has 22 points, with the 36-year-old German finishing an impressive sixth in the last two races.
Hulkenberg will join Sauber next season, while Ferrari-powered Haas prepares to field a new line-up, with British rookie Oliver Bellmann already signed and Esteban Ocon joining him as the front-runner.
“I like Kevin … (but) his recent fight with Hulkenberg was not impressive,” Steiner told reporters at a recent promotional event for Buffalo Trace bourbon.
“We need to be open to it… Either Hulkenberg is too good and we don’t know about it, or Kevin is not at the level to have a place in F1 at the moment. That’s when you need to realise…
“If you look closely, there are quite a few of them now,” added the Italian driver, who left Haas at the end of last year but remains a fan favourite via Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive.
“We have Checo (Sergio Perez), Danny (Daniel Ricciardo), Kevin, (Valtteri) Bottas. It’s difficult with Bottas because his car wasn’t great, so we didn’t really know where he was.
“But there are still a lot of people like that and those who give them seats need to think about whether this is the best thing for the team.”
Perez’s form has plummeted since signing a new contract with Red Bull in June, with the 34-year-old Mexican driver scoring just 15 points in the past six races, while three-time world champion team-mate Max Verstappen has won seven races so far.
Ricciardo, the 35-year-old former Red Bull and McLaren race winner, scored in just two races, while RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda scored six.
Bottas, a 34-year-old former Mercedes driver, is bottom of the standings, with Sauber yet to score a points finish this season.
Magnussen was temporarily recalled by Steiner for 2022 after the war in Ukraine forced Russian driver Nikita Mazepin to be replaced.
Although he has been a loyal but sometimes unlucky team-mate to Hulkenberg, the Danish driver has accumulated 10 penalty points and is on the verge of a one-race ban.
Steiner also said he didn’t know if Gene Haas would sell the team.
“I’ve been there a long time and I still don’t know what he wants to do,” he said of the American machine tool magnate. “I didn’t know last year, I didn’t know two years ago, I don’t know what his short-term and long-term thinking is.”
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