Kevin Magnussen has highlighted a number of American circuits he’d like to drive a Formula 1 car at while suggesting the sport should visit more “extreme” venues.
The Dane spent last year racing in the United States after losing his Formula 1 drive with Haas.
That saw him compete for McLaren SP at Road America in an IndyCar, while he raced a Cadillac DPi for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship at other venues such as Daytona, Watkins Glen, Sebring, Mid Ohio, and Laguna Seca, among others.
“There’s a lot of good tracks around the world that I’d love to drive a Formula 1 car at, and a lot of them, you know, might not be realistic,” he said.
“There’s some US tracks that I tried last year that I’d love to have a go at in one of these cars.
“I’d say Watkins Glen is a great one, and I actually think Formula 1 cars could run there – maybe safety wise not so much, but in terms of the smoothness of the track.
“And Road America. Road America is awesome.
“There’s even places, like not so realistic ones, like Mid Ohio, that I really enjoyed – little places that are just so crazy to drive when you’ve been in Formula 1 for so many years.
“It’s nice when Formula 1 goes places that are a little extreme,” he added.
“We when to Mugello a couple years ago, and that was… if felt like something else.
“It’s something that we don’t usually experience, and it’s just a lot of fun.
“We’re racing drivers, we enjoy driving cars in crazy tracks, but there’s a lot to it when it comes to picking out tracks for Formula 1 races.”
While none of the venues Magnussen suggested are likely to appear on the Formula 1 calendar anytime soon, the sport will visit the United States three times next season.
Next November, Las Vegas will join Miami and the United States Grands Prix on the schedule.
That’s in addition to stops in Canada and Mexico, leaving the central/northern part of the Americas with five races – more than a fifth of the predicted 24-race season.
The 2023 calendar is expected to be released in October, according to Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali.
“We are focused on the calendar for 2023 and expect to have more details around early October,” he said last week.
“On the choice between European and out-of-European races has an effect on on the on the on the revenue side,” he added, seemingly referencing the strong growth F1 is witnessing in a number of markets outside of its traditional base.
“There are discussion to make sure that the calendar is robust, is following also the fact that we would like to keep the right flow in terms of efficiency around the world, to consider the needs of a calendar to be spread out from March to November around the world.
“The demand is very, very high, and it’s our responsibility to put in place a calendar that is valuable to our stakeholders, but also valuable to respond to the requests that we have all over the world.”
Discussion about this post