"It just hasn’t made any difference" - Kevin Magnussen admits 'probably another two months' required to get in shape for F1

Kevin Magnussen received a last-minute call from Haas to partner Mick Schumacher in the team after Nikita Mazepin was asked to leave and has been vocal about his difficulties in catching up with the physical demands of the sport after having spent over a year on the sidelines.

On the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast, Kevin Magnussen spoke about his struggles returning to the sport with little to no time to prepare for it mentally or physically:

“The hardest thing has been my neck because you can train your neck, but it doesn’t get you fit to drive an F1 car. You can do all the training you want on your neck and I’ve done that in the past, and you get in the car and it just hasn’t made any difference. You’re still completely messed up after the first day in the car, so the first two races were quite tough on the neck.”

"I reckon probably another two months, now I’ve had one month of being an F1 driver again and being fully into training again, living the F1 life where you train every day and focus on your fitness. Not that I didn’t train last year at all, but it was a lot less than when I was an F1 driver.”

F1 is an exceptionally demanding sport when it comes to the physical aspect of it, especially when it comes to neck and core strength, along with overall bodyweight. Kevin Magnussen certainly maintained his physique in his year outside F1, but the type of training that a driver undergoes is no match for that of an ordinary athlete.

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"He has a very good attitude" - Kevin Magnussen on his 2022 Haas team-mate

Kevin Magnussen is partnering Mick Schumacher at Haas, who is currently in his second season in F1. The Danish driver spoke about the type of athlete and team member Schumacher is, describing him as a polite and honest man:

“He’s an incredibly nice guy. He stands firmly on the ground, is very polite, gets along well with everyone and everyone loves him. Mick was very open to me from the first moment and is very eager to learn and asks a lot. ”

“Mick doesn’t mind something like that, he simply wants to learn. I feel that he also has good feedback at team briefings and is not commented on. He is very honest with the team. If he makes a mistake or whatever happens, he is very open. I think he has a very good attitude."

Schumacher is yet to score a championship point in F1, while Magnussen currently stands ninth in the drivers' standings with twelve points.