(McLaren-Honda)
McLaren Group Chairman Ron Dennis has insisted that Kevin
Magnussen has a future in Formula One, despite losing his race seat at the
Woking based outfit for the 2015 Formula One season. It was announced on
Thursday that Fernando Alonso has re-joined McLaren alongside Jenson Button.
Dennis said that he believes that spending a year as a test
driver will be a good thing for the Danish driver, who finished the 2014
Formula One season in eleventh place in the championship on 55 points. Dennis
made the point to Magnussen that Alonso spent a year as a test driver at
Renault in 2002 following his Formula One debut with Minardi in 2001.
Dennis also pointed out that Mika Hakkinen also spent time
as a test driver with McLaren following two years with Lotus.
Both Fernando Alonso and Mika Hakkinen went on to become
double world champions with Hakkinen winning back to back titles in 1998 and
99, while Alonso also took back to championships in 2005 and 2006.
Dennis sees no reason why Magnussen can’t go on and do the same
as both Alonso and Hakkinen. McLaren-Honda Racing Director Eric Boullier has
echoed the sentiments of Dennis saying that Magnussen will be challenging for a
Formula One race seat in 2016. There will be no space at McLaren-Honda until at
least the end of the 2016 season.
Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button are both under contract at
McLaren until at least the end of 2016 which means that Magnussen could find
another seat on the grid in 2016 before returning to a race seat at Woking in
2017.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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