The Haas F1 Team have revealed that Kevin Magnussen would have been their lead driver for their debut season in 2016 had Romain Grosjean not accepted the drive.
Team owner Gene Haas revealed talks with Magnussen, who is departing the McLaren-Honda team at the end of the season, occurred, but with the announcement of Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, the Dane’s Formula 1 options have all-but disappeared.
“We talked to Magnussen, who was a very good candidate,” said Haas to Formula1.com. “He was very well respected by the McLaren team. In fact if Romain had declined we would have taken Magnussen as the primary seat.”
Magnussen had lost his McLaren race seat at the end of the 2014 season in favour of Fernando Alonso, and although he deputised for the Spaniard in the season opening race in Australia, the Dane has not returned to the car this year, and will walk away from the Woking team to seek for a future in motorsport.
He will test with the Porsche LMP1 World Endurance Championship squad at Barcelona next month alongside GP2 Series race winner Mitch Evans and Formula E driver Oliver Turvey.
