McLaren fired me on my birthday and cut the wrong driver

November 27, 2025 Oliver Obel

Magnussen is now immersed in a very different challenge with BMW M Team WRT, sharing a hypercar with teammates through races that run for anywhere from six to 24 hours.

The collaborative nature of endurance competition, he told SPORTbible, forces drivers to think less about themselves and more about the group. That perspective led him to revisit an early career setback that still lingers.

According to SPORTbible, the message informing him that McLaren would not retain him arrived on his birthday. He said the timing only intensified the shock. “It was a disaster for me when it happened,” he recalled.

Promise interrupted

Magnussen joined McLaren for the 2014 season after the team parted ways with Sergio Pérez. His debut made an immediate impact when he finished second at the Australian Grand Prix, marking him as one of the standout rookies of the hybrid era. Over the full season he collected just over 50 points and finished in the midfield.

Despite that promising start, McLaren chose an all champion lineup for 2015, pairing Fernando Alonso with Jenson Button and moving Magnussen into a reserve role.

He told SPORTbible that he believed he had shown enough speed to stay in the seat. “I outpaced a world champion in Formula One in my first season,” he said, while also acknowledging that Button’s experience and consistency helped the Briton finish ahead in the standings.

A year on the sidelines

The decision left Magnussen without a single race start for the entire 2015 campaign. He described the season to SPORTbible as a very unlucky stretch that tested his confidence as he waited for another opportunity.

Rebuilding after the setback

A full return came in 2016 with Renault, followed by several years with Haas that defined the bulk of his Formula One tenure. According to official F1 records, Magnussen made 185 race starts and scored just over 200 points before stepping away from F1 again at the end of 2024.

Adjusting to a new type of pressure

Leaving the grid did not mean leaving competitive racing. Magnussen has since committed to endurance racing, which he says demands a very different mindset. SPORTbible reports that he highlighted the challenge of shifting between long periods in the garage as part of the strategy group and suddenly being called into the cockpit.

“You have to work as a group much more,” he said. Moving from observer to driver, he added, “is very different because you are the racing driver in the same element as a F1 race.”

Magnussen’s reflections suggest that he still views his McLaren exit as a defining moment that arrived too soon. At the same time, the second chapter of his career shows a driver who has adapted to a discipline where teamwork, long races and mental flexibility shape the competitive landscape.

Sources: SPORTbible