Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

McLaren can learn from failure - Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen says McLaren can learn from his engine failure despite it preventing him from starting the Australian Grand Prix.

On the way to the grid ahead of the race, Magnussen stopped on the run to Turn 6 with smoke emerging from the rear of the MP4-30. While the issue saw Magnussen fail to start the race, he says it is a problem which McLaren will learn from in able to run the car more consistently.

“We had low expectations for this race so I think even though I didn’t start the race, the problem we had is something we’re going to learn from,” Magnussen said. “The positive is the other car finished the race, so that’s going to be lots of learning and that’s really what we came to do.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating for me because I would like to drive the car. I enjoy driving race cars so it’s frustrating not to do that, but it’s not like I missed out on a podium or something like that. It’s disappointing but we’ve just got to keep our heads high and still believe that if we do everything we can and work as hard as we can then we’ll get there someday.”

And Magnussen also sees the positives he can take away from Melbourne to help him as reserve for McLaren this season.

“Having done a race weekend - or at least much of it - there’s going to be more that I can contribute in the feedback. I can probably understand the feedback from the drivers better, so it’s going to be positive for my position as reserve driver. I’ve enjoyed this weekend, I got to do qualifying and drove the car on low fuel and it’s been fun. It’s been good to be out there again and I’ve enjoyed it.”

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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.