Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

McLaren will not stand in Magnussen's way

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McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says the team will not stand in Kevin Magnussen's way if he gets offered a seat at another team.

Magnussen was dropped after one year of racing for McLaren as Fernando Alonso came in to partner Jenson Button for 2015. While Magnussen has been the team's reserve driver this season, he is keen to race again in 2016 and told F1i in Belgium he has been approached about other seats in F1.

Alonso is on a three year contract, but Button has an option for next season. With McLaren yet to confirm its driver line-up for 2016, Magnussen has been eyeing a possible return but Boullier said in Italy the intention is to retain Button.

When asked if McLaren would stand in Magnussen's way if he was offered a seat elsewhere before the team has made a final decision on its own line-up, Boullier replied: "Only if we have the drive to offer him something here in McLaren, yes. If not, no.

"If we can offer him something - I'm not the only one to decide - and offer him a drive next year here then yes we would obviously take priority. He's a McLaren driver, he always claims he would like to race again for McLaren. But if we cannot, then personally I would never stop him from going to race somewhere else, of course."

Magnussen's chances of remaining on the grid took a blow when Williams announced an unchanged driver line-up at Monza, while Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez are set to remain at Force India. Newcomers Haas have also voiced doubts over Magnussen's lack of experience in F1.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.