Magnussen to Test Porsche LMP1

[Paul Jeffrey]

It has been confirmed that former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen is to take part in a 2 day test session at the Circuit de Catalunya next month along with GP2 star Mitch Evans and former Le Mans 24 Hours winner and McLaren F1 test driver Oliver Turvey.

Porsche Motorsports team principal Andreas Seidl Tweeted earlier today (Tuesday 27th October) that all three drivers have already had seat fittings and began work on the team simulator prior to being let loose in the factory 919 Hybrid LMP1 machine on November 10th and 11th.

"We decided to give three young drivers a chance to test the Porsche 919 Hybrid,” The seat fit and simulator preparation is already done. We are looking forward to the test and will see what the future brings."​

Magnussen is not thought to be keen to spend another year on the F1 side-lines in a testing role for another team and with race opportunities becoming increasingly rare, this looks like an opportunity for the young Dane to continue his motorsport education and gives him a shot at joining his father Jan in racing at the Le Man 24 hour race in June next year.

Running alongside alongside K-Mag in the upcoming test will be 2012 GP3 Champion and current GP driver Mitch Evans (a protégé of current Porsche driver Mark Webber) and former McLaren teammate Oliver Turvey (runner up at Le Man last season in LMP2). Turvey began his first full season in Formula E last weekend finishing a solid sixth for the NEXTEV Team China Racing team.

The latest test is great news for Kevin's aspirations of continuing a professional motorsport career but is also a sad reflection on the state of Formula One when a young driver of Magnussen's talent finds himself with an option to race in motorsports premier single seater series.

Do you think K-Mag looking to move to the WEC is the right choice or should he consider perusing his options in Formula One first? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[fortyfivekev]

He deserves another shot at F1 but if that isn't going to happen then a long career in the WEC is a way better prospect than ending up as a taxi driver in the DTM. Plus the Danes need a new Tom Kristensen to cheer for.

 

[Andrew Harper]

He deserves another shot at F1 but if that isn't going to happen then a long career in the WEC is a way better prospect than ending up as a taxi driver in the DTM. Plus the Danes need a new Tom Kristensen to cheer for.

I think it also depends on what they want out of a career in motorsport, there are a more high level series now than there used to be, a top seat in a WEC team is a good option.

DTM is a good way of getting a link with a factory (being a Guernsey resident I've seen Andy Priaulx go from one BMW factory link to another) but as we've all seen before it can either make or break their careers.

If you can't get in the top three or four teams in F1 it means you will be fighting for 10th or 11th place most of the time, if they are happy with that then that's fine. On the flipside Kevin is probably breathing a little sigh of relief that he isn't having to deal with the Honda development program at the moment!

 

[Peter Klawitter]

F1 has become absolute disaster IMO, someone either start new F1 type series or they need to hit reset button or start from scratch...F1 has become so uninteresting!

 

[fortyfivekev]

F1 has become absolute disaster IMO, someone either start new F1 type series or they need to hit reset button or start from scratch...F1 has become so uninteresting!

Largely agree with you although it is hard to see Mercedes and Ferrari voting for an F1 do-over and the FIA under Todt are a wet weekend when it comes to getting things done. It's also a shame that Indycar isn't the option for F1 refugees that it was in the 90's.

 

[Rob]

Largely agree with you although it is hard to see Mercedes and Ferrari voting for an F1 do-over and the FIA under Todt are a wet weekend when it comes to getting things done. It's also a shame that Indycar isn't the option for F1 refugees that it was in the 90's.

The hell. lol. IndyCar has been attracting (and has attracted) names that are as good as any in F1 (Montoya, Franchitti, Wheldon, Rahal, Dixon, Hawksworth, etc.) and it's stealing many GP2 drivers that have given up on the bureaucratic nightmare. Another thing is, if you commit to IndyCar and are well received (as it's much harder to learn due to the diversity of the tracks and, therefore, cars) you are generally there for as long as you want to be. Sure it's not paying drivers $22M a year, but only a handful of F1 drivers make that sort of Jack anyway. The rest get asked "where is your sponsor?" or shown the door after a year if they are one of the 10,000 who luck out and make it. Rubens had a nice little quote about the differences, being just out of F1 and into the new spec IndyCar in 2013-4:

"I like the fact that we're going to be closer," he said, genuinely. "At Sonoma we had like a thousand fans on the track, 1,500 there, and it was great. It was a great reception. It was a good mood all over ... It's well organized. People don't go across the board, and they just know where to stand."

And Bourdais was not so nice:

"I'm enjoying my racing again after a horrible experience in Formula One," Bourdais told the Detroit Free Press. "It's challenging [racing] on concrete. Driving in the rain at Detroit, it's tougher than any Formula One track, including the streets of Monaco. F1 has ruined every track. They have taken the character out of them, made them vanilla. It hurts me. Monaco is now a friggin' parking lot with a couple of turns."

So, instead of IndyCar being like F1, F1 is taking hints from IndyCar these days when they find that throwing their money around doesn't work. They opened the paddock at COTA after the qualification washout and sat there, on Bernie's orders, for two hours and let the fans into the paddock to chat and get stuff signed. Huh? Go figure. Good call, but we shall see if this continues, along with things like letting the drivers pick their own number.

In addition, several GP2 drivers are headed over for the same reasons. Why not use the "F1 clout" while it's there and drive as opposed to hoping you don't get three years older and are forever abandoned. On the upswing and snatching talent that F1 could and should have, is being smart, not picking up the scraps. F1 could learn that spending millions on development only to loose someone good to IndyCar is foolish. Names: Luca Filippi (2nd in points, 4four wins 2011); Stephano Coletti (5th, 6th in GP2); James Jakes (Manor GP2); Mikhail Aleshin (2nd GP2, 1st GP3); Simon Pagenaud (2nd at LeMans 2011 in LMP1; Champion ALMS; 2nd F.Renault). And many more to come. Thanks Euro feeders!!

IndyCar series is not CART or CHAMP anymore. The split still hampers it as the rest of the world catches up to the reality of a more "CART" based former glory. IndyCar numbers rise and F1 numbers fall. No mystery there. One day, F1 fans will wake up and realize the rest of the world has moved on, as many in Europe seem to be doing with WEC (The Japan race was great, if not tedious, as they all are). IndyCar and F1 are much closer than they were 10 years ago. And far more diverse.

 

[fortyfivekev]

The hell. lol. IndyCar has been attracting (and has attracted) names that are as good as any in F1 (Montoya, Franchitti, Wheldon, Rahal, Dixon, Hawksworth, etc.)...

These guys mostly went to Indycar a LONG time ago which was exactly my point and GP2 is stacked with second raters who only got there because they had big budgets. Nowadays European drivers are much more likely to want to race at Le Mans than at Indy which wasn't the case back in the 90's.

For fans like us there is a good racing in Indycar today but when was the last time someone did a Montoya and made a career in Indycar and then switched to F1 and did well?

 

[Hamzalija Meco]

Plus the Danes need a new Tom Kristensen to cheer for.

Thre is only one Tom, there will only be one.
That said, i´m not a fan of any Magnusens and realy dont think Magnusen JR will be able to follow his fathers footsteps.