There are a lot of fans, but especially in Denmark, who has followed the Magnussen family closely for many years.
That is no matter if it was Jan Magnussen, prior to, during or after his Formula 1 career, or at the 24 hours of Le Mans, or in the USA through the many years at Panoz and Corvette Racing.
Then Kevin Magnussen arrived on the scene, and has attracted just as much, if not more, attention from the fans.
So there naturally were a lot of happy fans, when father and son Magnussen finally raced together at Le Mans in 2021, but still with a bit of a sad face, since it was the first 24 hours race in Le Mans, after the Corona year, which still held a lot of limitations on the spectator numbers at the French venue. High Class Racing gave the two generations of Magnussen the chance to race an ORECA 07 Gibson LMP2 car alongside Anders Fjordbach.
A lot of fans had hoped for a repeat, especially now that Kevin Magnussen no longer participated in Formula 1. But there are several factors, who most likely will prevent that from happening again.
Photo: JJ Media
First of all, is down to Kevin being a works driver at BMW, where he will be racing their BMW M Hybrid V8 together with Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello. There will be no “gestures” from BMW towards a farther-son reunion, like there were talks about back in the Corvette Racing days for Jan, where it was potential with up and coming Kevin.
Furthermore, Kevin dismissed the idea of a reunion in a recent interview that BMW Motorsport held at the Daytona International Speedway, when he met the press ahead of the 24 hours race.
“We have ticked that box. We raced together a couple of times – at Le Mans and also a GT race in Abu Dhabi. So I think, we have done that, and he is not getting any younger. Endurance racing has always been a part of my life. Ever since I was a little kid, my dad has been racing – back in the ALMS days, and all the IMSA races. So I’ve come to many races over here. Always had a passion for it. As a little boy, who look up to your dad, and what he is doing. Of course my dream was in F1. That is a chapter that has closed for me now, and I’m very much looking forward to going into something that I feel is real racing. Not to take anything away from Formula 1, but for me it’s been kind of – there are Formula 1 drivers and there are racing drivers. For me it’s something that I’ve felt like a racing driver – also Formula 1 driver, but very much a racing driver.”
Jan Magnussen is the Danish racing driver, who has had the most starts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but he is also quite high up the ranks in the international history books. Jan has had 23 starts at the race, only being surpassed by Henri Pescarolo (33 times), Bob Wollek (30 times), Yojiro Terada (29 times), Derek Bell (26 times), og Francois Migault, Jan Lammers, og Emmanuel Collard (all 24 times each).
When the 2025 edition are going to be run later this year, it will be the second Le Mans for Kevin Magnussen, and the very first for BMW M Team WRT in the Hypercar category.
The FIA World Endurance Championship will start in less than a month time, when the 1812 kilometers (or 10 hours, whichever happens first) in Qatar is run at the Lusail International Circuit. A track, that Kevin knows from his Formula 1 years too.
