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Sebring Run Part of a Fuller IMSA, WEC Program with BMW M Motorsport
February 21, 2025
By Holly Cain IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kevin Magnussen is smiling and feeling optimistic having found his groove as a sports car driver in his transition from a decade-long career competing in Formula 1.
After 10 seasons in the F1 ranks, Magnussen will now contend in the ultra-competitive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, racing as part of the three longest Michelin Endurance Cup races driving the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).
He kicked off the season at the Rolex 24 At Daytona with additional races to come at next month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and at the Motul Petit Le Mans season finale. He’ll complete the full season for BMW in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Sports car racing has always held a special and substantial place in his heart. His father, Jan Magnussen was a five-time IMSA champion and 47-time race winner in three decades of competition in three generations of America’s renowned sports car series.
“I came here so much as a kid and grew up at these races in a way,” Kevin Magnussen shared. “I always knew I wanted to be part of it. As a young boy you look up to your dad and want to do what he’s been doing. I guess for many drivers, Formula 1 is like the pinnacle, which it is for me as well, but I certainly have an extra passion for sports car racing because I grew up with it and looked up to my dad doing it.”
Certainly, there have been career options for the 32-year-old Dane, who experienced quite an entrance to Formula 1 – scoring a runner-up finish at Melbourne, Australia for McLaren Mercedes at the age of 21 in his very first start in 2014.
After his first F1 sojourn ended after 2020, Magnussen ran a full IMSA season for Cadillac’s Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared Cadillac DPi-V.R in 2021. He earned five podium finishes and scored his first IMSA win – from pole position no less – at Detroit’s former Belle Isle circuit. Since then, he’s made two Rolex 24 At Daytona starts: 2022 and this January.
His racing résumé in the United States also includes a single start in the IndyCar Series that same year, when he led six laps for the Arrow McLaren SP team at Road America before retiring his car with an engine problem.
As Magnussen’s time at the Haas F1 team was concluding last season, he said there was little doubt as to what he wanted to do next.
“It’s more pure, both this championship and sports car racing in general,” Magnussen said. “I think people love what they are doing more than they do in Formula 1 because (in F1) it’s so competitive and it can be cold in a way. I arrived here (in Daytona Beach) and see everyone smiling and looking forward to the race and everything. It’s a different vibe, a different environment.”
Not only in the garage and team shop, but throughout the paddock as well.
“Here, I’m just another racing driver,” Magnussen said, allowing a grin. “It’s so chilled out and so relaxed in a way, I don’t want to say it’s relaxed in a negative way because it is so competitive, but just that everyone is so good at what they’re doing. The level is super high.”
As Magnussen spoke to reporters in advance of the Rolex 24, his friend and former Haas F1 teammate Romain Grosjean, now competing for Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse in GTP, stopped by for a pat on the back and a handshake. The two exchanged greetings and Grosjean joked that he is content to race only part-time at this point, “doing very, very little.”
Other sports car drivers also approached Magnussen to welcome him to the paddock and catch up on his 2025 plans as well.
“The cool thing here (in the sports car paddock) is it’s absolutely a top level of motorsport, but it’s fun,” Magnussen said. “Kind of the same feeling as when I was a young kid in go-karting. People just love it and are here because they are racers and love racing. … I think the atmosphere is more like for the love of the sport than a mission to become the greatest in the world. It’s just different.”
After a strong start in Daytona as part of BMW’s improved efforts, the team heads to the March 15 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring next month quite optimistic with Magnussen already enjoying a strong start to the next phase of his career.
“That’s a big thing for me,” Magnussen said. “I’ve done Formula 1 for 10 years and never had a chance of winning. All of those years, I knew that I didn’t have a chance to win. So, at the end of the day, I’m a racer. I’m competitive. I grew up wanting to become the best and when you’ve done 10 years of knowing you can’t win that gets old after a while.
He added, “At the end, of the day, I’m still only 32 and I still have a lot of years left as a race car driver and I want to win stuff. To now have maybe a Rolex or Le Mans win or Bathurst or wins from all these great races around the world.
“I know if I had done 20 years of Formula 1, I would not have been satisfied. I feel like something would have been missing. I would have missed a chance to go and do some cool stuff.”
