Magnussen won't be 'friendly', but will avoid penalties

Haas' Kevin Magnussen says he'll be pushing even harder in 2018 than he did last year, but will be mindful to stay out the stewards' office.

The Dane built himself a bit of a bad boy reputation last year following a few on-track encounters and subsequent complaints from a few of his rivals who often labeled his driving as overly aggressive.

Magnussen insists however that he won't be changing his approach this season, and if anything, he'll race even harder than before.

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"I look at it like this," he told BT newspaper. "If I get a penalty, then I've made a mistake.

"But I only got one penalty last year so I need to learn from that. So this year, I'm going to try to drive just as hard without getting any penalties.

"That doesn't mean I'm going to be any more friendly on the track. I hope to be even harder -- just without any penalty," he smiled.

The 25-year-old begins the last year of his two-year contract with the Haas F1 Team, but the US outfit has an option on Magnussen's services for 2019.

"I'm happy to be here with Haas, and my starting point is that I want to stay," he said.

"Therefore, I do not have much stress. Of course it would always be nice to be notified as early as possible."

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