“You’ve Got to Take it to the Limit, Not Over the Limit” – Kevin Magnussen on Aggressive Driving

Recently, Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen spoke about the umpteen number of aggressive moves in F1. The Dane has confessed that he is guilty of “overstepping the line” at times in his Formula 1 career. However, he was quick to allay blame onto other drivers as well as a sort of justification for his actions.

The Haas driver is no saint because he has been in a number of controversial scraps over the years. One of the most famous ones is a clash with Nico Hulkenberg in 2017, which culminated in a heated post-race verbal exchange. Other victims include two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly.

The 27-year old spoke to F1 in an Instagram live interview and defended his driving style. He even insisted that he is not the only driver to push the boundaries of legality.

He said, “There are certainly some drivers who have had some issues with it and complained about it and I’m the first to admit that I have overstepped the line at some points, but I don’t think I’m the only one who’s done that.”

Kevin Magnussen explains the reason behind the aggressive tactics

According to the Haas driver, the root cause largely comes from being in the heat of the midfield battles. Kevin Magnussen believes that the dogfight has a tendency to get intense, especially further up the grid.

“The thing is, the last few years, I’ve been battling right in the midfield and often in the midfield,” he explained. “If you’re in P10 and you’re getting caught from behind from P11 or the other way round… there’s that one point to gain… and there’s not really a lot to lose. I’ve had had very tough battles for P10. Some of them were over the limit.

“The way I see it is: You’ve got to take it to the limit, not over the limit, for sure, but you’ve got to take it to the limit with your driving style. You have to not take it over the line but to the line, but sometimes that can be hard to find; certainly it’s better to take it under not over.”