Kevin & Jan Magnussen: “We are happiest in a car”

Having just left the Haas F1 Team at the end of 2020, the young Dane bounced back by finding refuge with Chip Ganassi Racing in IMSA. His transition year - before joining the Peugeot 9X8 program - already looked like a full-scale apprenticeship in endurance racing. When the High Class Racing team announced on its Oreca 07 the presence of Kevin and Jan Magnussen for Le Mans, this 2021 vintage took a completely different turn.

Published on 26/07/2021 à 16:00

⁰ View comments)

Kevin & Jan Magnussen: “We are happiest in a car”

Congratulations Kevin, you will be participating in your very first edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Before talking about it, a little history. We imagine that you know in which year your father started at Le Mans?

Kevin: I remember it, but it was a long time ago. (Laughs) I was only 6 or 7 years old! Was it in 1999 with the Panoz Roadster?

Jan : Exact. It was truly a crazy car, I have very good memories of it. As with the Corvettes, the noise of the Panoz resonated everywhere, we were heard before we were seen.

Kevin: I remember it being very different from all the other cars and not just because the engine was in the front. I know it was nicknamed the “Batmobile”.

Jan : It was a fan favorite car and I think that's largely because it was so different from the others at the time. Don Panoz liked to say that one should not put the cart before the horse. This is what he literally did with this very original car.