After scouring the data, Kevin Magnussen believes he has spotted a “trend” which linked him, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo.

As the F1 2025 season draws closer, Hamilton is the only driver of this trio still with a place on the grid, the seven-time World Champion heading to Ferrari with doubters to silence after a challenging final season with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton yet to master ground effect F1 cars?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Said season featured highs like his Silverstone and Spa wins, but lows such as Qatar where Hamilton declared himself “definitely not fast anymore”. The record holder for most Formula 1 pole positions with 104, Hamilton lost the Mercedes qualifying head-to-head versus George Russell 19-5.

And Magnussen, who lost his seat at Haas after the 2024 campaign, believes drivers like he, Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo – who was dropped in-season by VCARB [Racing Bulls] after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix – have been punished by this era of F1 machinery.

The new F1 cars – which utilise ground effect aerodynamics – came into effect in 2022, with Hamilton and Mercedes unable to mount a title challenge since then.

When speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, at the F1 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, it was put to Magnussen that he is a super-aggressive driver who is good on the brakes, like Hamilton and Ricciardo, but all three of them have struggled to shine in ground effect F1 cars.

He was therefore asked if he believed there was a link present between their respective issues.

“I think so,” he confirmed.

“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 and so.

“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.”

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Delving deeper into the style with which he believes the ground effect F1 cars need to be driven, Magnussen highlighted one big no-no when at the wheel.

“You weren’t really able to combine as much as with any other car,” he said. “This car is very particular in that it doesn’t really like braking and turning at the same time.

“In general terms, you have to drive it like V-style a lot.”

With his Haas departure sealed, Magnussen will returns to the sportscar scene in 2025 as a BMW works driver, and will compete in either the IMSA SportsCar Championship or FIA World Endurance Championship.

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