Jan Magnussen

A promising start brought comparisons with Ayrton Senna but it was away from Formula 1 that the Dane made his mark. Here, the Le Mans regular lifts the lid on his highs and lows

INTERVIEW: ROB WIDDOWS

GETTY IMAGES

McLaren test driver Magnussen, right, covered for the appendicitis-stricken Mika Häkkinen, left, at the Pacific GP in 1995. Nigel Mansell bowed out from F1 this season, appearing twice

Driving for Paul Stewart Racing, Magnussen stormed British F3 in 1994. Right: on the grid at Oulton Park in 1992 in the  Formula Ford Van Diemen RF92

TIM ROOKE/SHUTTERSTOCK, ALAMY, GRA ND PRIX PHOTO

JACKIE STEWART DESCRIBED JAN Magnussen as “the greatest driving talent to emerge since Ayrton Senna”. The young Dane dominated the 1994 British F3 championship, winning 14 of 18 races for the Paul Stewart team. As a teenager he’d already won the ultracompetitive Formula Ford Festival, his destiny as a future Formula 1 world champion seemingly assured.

He made his F1 debut for McLaren at the Pacific Grand Prix in October 1995 but the dream career was diverted across the Atlantic for 1996. Jan stood in for both Paul Tracy and Emerson Fittipaldi in Penske’s CART team after both were badly hurt in accidents. Then came the big chance to prove himself with the Stewart Grand Prix team alongside Rubens Barrichello for 1997.

To this day people are still mystified why it ended, not with a championship, but by being replaced by Jos Verstappen halfway through 1998. Talking to Motor Sport from his home in Roskilde, this immensely likeable Dane looks back on his time in F1 and tells us, in typically honest fashion, how he rebuilt his career in America.

Motor Sport: You came to England as a teenager, won the Formula Ford Festival in 1992, by which time you were also a father at just 19. Everyone was talking about you. It all seemed so easy.

JM: “Well, yes... and no. I knew I had the speed and the talent in the car but it was still early days and there was very little money. I’d already won three Kart World Championships, two junior and one senior, so I knew I had to come to England and get myself into a Formula Ford. I’d had some support at home from Team Denmark, who helped young athletes, but it was very small money and racing at home was really only at club level.

“I felt confident I would be competitive in England. My son Kevin [who would go on to race in F1 for McLaren and Haas] was born just before the Formula Ford Festival in October ’92 and it was pretty difficult balancing the racing with being a father so young, a lot of pressure. Looking back it was not the greatest situation but I’m so happy it happened that way. I’d go home and spend time with him when there was no racing. It was harder than I thought it was going to be but I learnt so much and won seven of the last nine races of ’92 including the Festival and that led to Formula Vauxhall and Opel in ’93, including a couple of races with Paul Stewart’s F3 team.”