Former McLaren junior driver reveals how an impossible 'Lewis Hamilton' benchmark hurt his career

Former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen revealed that the British team wanted him to match Lewis Hamilton's benchmark in his rookie campaign in 2014. The Danish driver was part of the Woking-based outfit's Driver Academy and had joined them at the start of the season when they decided to drop Sergio Perez after just one year.

The iconic British team had a difficult 2013 season, where they failed to win a single race and finished in P5 in the Constructors' Championship. Although Perez was close to his teammate Jenson Button, the two drivers had far too many on-track moments that were detrimental to the team.

After an excellent start to his rookie season, as Magnussen scored a podium in his debut race in Melbourne, the former Haas F1 driver revealed to Motor Sport Magazine that McLaren had 'crazy' expectations of him, which included having to match Lewis Hamilton's margin to Jenson Button, and said:

“I remember Jonathan [Neale, managing director] and Éric [Boullier, racing director] telling me: ‘Lewis was an average of 0.15s faster than Jenson in qualifying over the three years they raced alongside each other, so, to retain your drive for next year, you should be aiming to beat Jenson by the same margin’.

“I accepted it at the time but, looking back, it was unfair. Lewis and Jenson were both F1 World Champions, far more experienced than I was, and Jonathan and Éric were telling me that if I wasn’t as good in my rookie season as Lewis had been in his third, fourth and fifth F1 seasons, I’d be out. That was crazy – and also disrespectful to Jenson."

Lewis Hamilton had left McLaren at the end of the 2012 season to join Mercedes, where he won six of his seven drivers' titles and led them to eight consecutive Constructors' Championships from 2014 to 2020. After 12 years, he left the German team in 2024 to race for Ferrari in the twilight years of his career.

---

F1 pundit gives his take on Lewis Hamilton's radio calls in Miami

Former F1 driver and pundit Martin Brundle stated that Lewis Hamilton's sarcastic radio calls to Ferrari during the 2025 Miami Grand Prix last weekend were 'quite telling'.

While appearing on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, the former McLaren driver said:

"The radio calls, they [Ferrari] seemed to hesitate too much - they have them for a long time, haven't they. Some of the things Lewis has said on the radio are quite sarcastic, as he said. You can't unsay those, and I think it's quite telling that kind of frustration," Brundle said.

Lewis Hamilton finished behind his teammate Charles Leclerc in the race last weekend despite having the faster car in the final few laps. He was unable to hit his objective of passing Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli and had to give his place to Leclerc.