Kevin Magnussen felt the offer made to him by the Haas F1 Team was too good to turn down despite having an offer to remain with the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team for a second season.
The Dane finished in the points twice for the Enstone-based team in 2016, with his best result coming in the Russian Grand Prix when he took seventh, but Magnussen felt his future lay away from Renault, with things ultimately not working out in the partnership.
“I had an offer [with Renault] that I couldn’t accept because I had a better offer, and now I’m here, so I’m happy how it turned out,” said Magnussen to ESPN. “You can’t completely compare the situation and what happened at McLaren with what happened at Renault because at McLaren I wanted to stay, the team wanted to stay, but there were things at the top which meant it was chosen not to continue with me.
“I don’t regret anything… There’s so many people at both McLaren and Renault I still speak to and have a great relationship with, just certain things didn’t work out and I’m happy with how things did work out.”
Magnussen believes he should have been able to achieve more with both his former employers at the McLaren F1 Team and at Renault, and although his departures from the respective teams were for completely different reasons, he is happy to end up with the Haas team for 2017 where he feels he will be able to finally show what he can do in Formula 1.
“I feel a bit unlucky with the two teams I’ve been with,” said Magnussen. “I think I should have been able to have achieve more with both. I lost the seat at McLaren for reasons that were a little bit strange, and then we parted ways at Renault because we didn’t think it worked.
“[Renault] was just a great chance to get back into F1. I’d lost a seat to Fernando [Alonso] at McLaren, had a year completely out of racing, so to get back into F1 was a huge chance. I enjoyed that a lot and it was very important for me to get it because it was very last minute. It’s taken me to here, which I think is a place I can build myself and gain experience and grow with the team. That for me is a very good situation.”
