A surprising opening Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain saw Formula One’s first-ever Chinese driver, a terrible slide in fall for a fan favourite team, and Lewis Hamilton picked up a shock third place despite Mercedes being completely off the pace, with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen unable to finish the race with reliability issues.
However, if you take a step back from the podium, behind the usual front runners Ferrari, Mercedes and (although not on featured this race) Red Bull, you see the biggest comeback story of any team or driver in recent history.
In 2020, American-owned team Haas decided to axe not one, but both of their drivers, in favour of two rookies, one with substantial financial backing.
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both accepted they were done with Formula One, with Grosjean moving on to Indy Car and Magnussen dabbling in different motor racing competitions. But in 2022, Russia decided to invade Ukraine. It was a move that many experts saw coming, but no one could predict the changes it would bring to the international sporting world; including Formula One.
The International Olympic Committee moved to ban all Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in the Winter Olympics, with many sporting codes following their lead. Formula One and their governing body the FIA decided not to take such a drastic route, with drivers from both nations allowed to compete under certain conditions.
It looked that Haas’s Russian driver, Nikita Mazepin – preparing for his second stint in the competition under new, promising regulations – would be allowed to compete. However, Mazepin and his father, who part-owns the title sponsor for the team Uralkali, have close links with the Kremlin.
Dmitry Mazepin was one of a select few called to the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately after Russian forces entered Ukraine. This caused a major problem for Haas.
(Photo by Joe Portlock – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
The young Mazepin would technically be allowed to compete under current rules – though he would be barred from the British Grand Prix after they placed a ban on Russian athletes. But owner Gene Haas and team principal Guenther Steiner understood how it looked to keep Mazepin and Uralkali on their books. So, they made the radical, if not completely expected, decision to terminate their contract with both driver and sponsor, effective immediately.
The decision came just days following the pre-season test in Spain, where Haas looked well off the pace and struggled with reliability issues.
The next decision the team needed to make was who to replace Mazepin with in the car? It was just weeks out from the season opener in Bahrain, where the team had promised performance following an abysmal 2021 where they finished right at the back of the grid with no points to show.
Many names circulated for who would take the seat, with reigning F2 driver Oscar Piastri and Haas reserve driver Pietro Fitipaldi the favourites. The names of Aston Martin reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg and current Formula E driver Antonio Giovinazzi were also thrown around, though they seemed less likely. What came next shocked fans, officials and drivers.
Kevin Magnussen is returning to the grid.
Magnussen joined the Formula One paddock in 2014 with a bang – clinching a podium on his first ever outing with McLaren. It turned out to be his only podium so far, and he was relegated to reserve driver for the team for 2015.
The Dane moved to Renault for 2017, but his season was marred by a string of incidents early in the season.
Magnussen finished the year in 16th position in the drivers’ standings, with seven of the eight points Renault would achieve as a team.
(Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
He moved across to the surprising American team Haas the following year – partnering with Frenchman Romain Grosjean and delivering frankly shocking results for such a small team with a tiny budget compared to the rest of the field.
Magnussen finished ninth in the championship in his second year with the team in 2018 – 19 points clear of Grosjean. But being in a comparatively small team with a fraction of the budget had its issues. Haas was well known for its lack of strategy and issues at pitstops – most notably in Australia in 2019 when they botched both drivers’ stops and forced a double retirement.
In 2020, Haas let both drivers go. Son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, Mick Schumacher, and Mazepin joined for 2021, where the team delivered the most abysmal season. Team Principal Steiner was very open with the fact Haas was putting all its eggs in the 2022 basket – where new regulations promised to shake up the field and deliver closer wheel-to-wheel racing.
Many commentators of the sport were highly sceptical of the move.
Popular podcast WTF1 placed Haas at the bottom of the grid for the 2022 season – with the driver pairing of Schumacher and Mazepin rated the lowest out of all ten teams. Pre-season shake-up testing in Barcelona seemed to confirm the scepticism, with Haas well behind the rest of the field and unable to take part in the full three days due to reliability issues.
It looked as if 2022 would be a repeat of the previous year, and would result in huge financial consequences for the team due to a lack of success.
But then Russia invaded Ukraine. And Kevin Magnussen rejoined the field. And somehow, despite all previous predictions and skepticism, Haas was fighting with the top of the grid.
Magnussen went fastest on the second day of pre-season testing, and although testing times should be taken with a grain of salt, the Haas hype train began to pick up speed. The Dane popped it in P7 in qualifying, getting the team into the third qualifying stint since 2019. And the race was even more bizarre.
If we ignore the double DNF from Max Verstappen and Serio Perez, we still would have seen Magnussen finish in the points. He was running consistently in the top ten, and it was almost certain that he would stay there to the checkered flag even if all cars finished.
What makes Magnussen’s comeback weekend so special is we finally see a driver on the grid not out there for himself. Magnussen was out there to do his best for a team that let him go. He was there not for his own comeback, but for the comeback of a small American team that many had written off before the lights even went out.
We don’t know if Haas will be a strong midfield contender this year.
There are still so many variables and development strategies that need to happen before season’s end, but one thing is for certain: the K-Mag comeback will be an amazing thing to watch.