Former Haas driver Kevin Magnussen believes he has identified the cause of Lewis Hamilton’s recent struggles, citing the ‘particular’ nature of ground effect F1 cars.
Magnussen, who lost his seat at Haas at the end of the 2024 season and will now return to the sportscar scene in 2025 as a BMW works driver, has detected similarities in the data linking himself, Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo who was also dropped from the F1 roster following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
Hamilton is the only one of the trio with a place on the grid as the 2025 season approaches with the seven-time World Champion heading to Ferrari bidding to silence his critics following a difficult final season with Mercedes.
The new F1 cars, which came into effect in 2022, exploit ground effect aerodynamics and their introduction has coincided with Hamilton and the Silver Arrows struggling to launch a title challenge since then.
Known as an aggressive driver, good on the breaks, Magnussen’s driving style is cut from the same cloth as Hamilton and Ricciardo and the 32-year-old Dane believes there is a correlation between the trio’s issues in ground effect F1 cars.
“It’s hard, because I can’t go deep into that data and analyse them as such, but I can see trends, you know, we do have some sort of GPS data,” said Magnussen.
“And I have been curious to, and had a look and see, if I can find some similarities. And it does seem like the drivers that have this particular way of driving, as we do, then we seem to struggle a bit more than others.
“I think it’s clear that Lewis is struggling. He’s been great in all the different cars he’s ever driven. Also before Formula 1, everything, he was great. These cars are very particular.
“And I think also because of the tyres. On top of the cars being aerodynamically and mechanically quite particular, the tyres also are a strange one.”
Delving deeper into the manner with which he believes the ground effect F1 cars need to be driven, Magnussen pinpointed one huge negative when at the wheel.
“You weren’t really able to combine as much as with any other car. This car is very particular in that it doesn’t really like braking and turning at the same time,” he added.
