As part of a daily series in the run-up to the start of pre-season, Motorsport Week brings you brief left-field reflections and stories of teams, drivers and reserve/test drivers that will be part of the Formula 1 paddock in 2019.
After much deliberation McLaren chose Jenson Button over Kevin Magnussen to partner Fernando Alonso for 2015’s reunion with Honda, but the new era got off to a problematic start in more ways than one.
Honda’s chronic underperformance and reliability setbacks robbed McLaren of crucial pre-season mileage, and it got worse when Alonso crashed heavily during testing in Barcelona, an accident still shrouded in mystery to this day.
Alonso was ruled out of the next pre-season test, and Australia’s season opener, with reserve Magnussen drafted back into action, 12 months after he scored a stunning podium on his Formula 1 debut with McLaren.
In a peculiar season opener – in which Manor Marussia did not compete, Sauber faced a court case, and two other drivers also failed to make the start – Magnussen had a miserable weekend.
Magnussen’s running was restricted in FP1 and in FP2 he crashed after just four laps, having run too deep into the Turn 6 right-hander. An engine problem hampered his Q1 effort and he qualified firmly at the back, but he didn’t even get the chance to take up his spot on the grid as a smoky engine halted his MP4-30 on the reconnaissance lap. He completed just 33 laps all weekend and, with Alonso returning for the second round of the year in Malaysia, that was it for his 2015 season. His non-start means he was officially not recognised in the FIA’s final championship standings.
Magnussen left McLaren later in the year and explored options in LMP1 and DTM, but was thrown a Formula 1 lifeline by Renault when Pastor Maldonado’s funding dried up due to the worsening economic situation in his native Venezuela. Magnussen returned to the grid with the French manufacturer for 2016 then switched to Haas for 2017, finishing a career-best ninth in last season's championship.
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