Kevin Magnussen has said life at Haas is the most fun he's had in Formula 1 and a huge relief compared to his time at McLaren and Renault.
The Danish driver made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2014 where he scored 55 points compared to team-mate Jenson Button's 126, but said the atmosphere at the team knocked his confidence, partly because of unstable management.
He then sat out a year – although made a one-off appearance at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix to sit in for an injured Fernando Alonso – before switching to Renault, where he struggled and blamed it on a lack of support.
"It was a very unstable beginning to my Formula 1 career," Magnussen told Autosport. "I had great momentum before I got to Formula 1 and I lost it once I arrived [at McLaren].
"The team that I got there with was very unstable and the management were fighting. The pressure was massive as we knew it was all between me and Jenson, we started making mistakes, and you start being tense and not performing well."
On Renault, he added: "I didn't have the support I needed there. I still think I did a good job, but they had already decided from the beginning that I wasn't the right guy for them."
Magnussen described the early part of his F1 career as "pretty horrific and very unstable", but was able to find a seat with Haas in their second season and has begun to rediscover his passion for the sport and currently sits eighth in the standings with more than double the points of his team-mate Romain Grosjean.
"Luckily Haas saw the potential and gave me a shot, they offered me a deal where I could see stability.
"It's really good fun, the most fun I've had in F1. I think it just shows the quality that the team is made of. They are able to make decisions and they are able to commit and take directions, it's a real strength of the team."
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