Magnussen using Renault future as motivation

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Kevin Magnussen says he is having to use Renault's future as his motivation while racing outside the points at the majority of races.

Renault is in a rebuilding phase having taken over the cash-strapped Lotus team at the end of 2015, which resulted in the team switching late from a Mercedes power unit. As it looks to rebuild both facilities and personnel, Renault stopped development on its 2016 car early and has scored points on just one occasions courtesy of Magnussen in the Russian Grand Prix.

While his own future remains uncertain at this stage, Magnussen says thinking about the coming seasons when Renault should be more competitive is acting as his main motivation during races this year.

"For sure, it’s difficult not to be racing for points," Magnussen said. "If you’re racing in P16 and P15, chasing someone down and even if you do get him and overtake him - you’re working so hard to overtake him and you still don’t get points.

"It is a very frustrating and challenging time but I know what I’m working towards. You can always motivate yourself by thinking about next year and the year after that, just thinking about the future and try to learn as much as possible and prepare for when you get the chance because that’s how Formula One is, suddenly you’re in a car that can win and you have to deliver.

"So learning and preparing yourself for that time is what I’m doing now."

Renault team principal Frederic Vasseur has already said the team is likely to make a decision on its 2017 driver line-up at the start of September.

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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.