SAP Perfect Lap Issue 02
Kevin Magnussen
Learning Curves
Data analysis has become one of the most important
tools in working with a rookie such as Kevin Magnussen
to prepare him for the F1 top flight
THERE he stood on the third step of the podium for
his debut grand prix, beaming with unbridled delight.
McLaren’s hot-shot rookie, Kevin Magnussen, had just
made one of the most impressive Formula 1 debuts
ever, racing hard from fourth on the grid (six places
ahead of his 2009 world champion team mate Jenson
Button) – and the result was about to get even better.
Hours after flag-fall second-placed Daniel Ricciardo
was disqualified for a fuel system irregularity, thereby
promoting Magnussen to P2. Only one driver in the
history of Formula 1 has ever gone one better and won
on his grand prix debut: Giancarlo Baghetti, who aced
the 1961 French GP.
Magnussen’s performance was all the more
remarkable because off-season testing has become
strictly limited. Gone are the days of emerging
talents such as Jacques Villeneuve or, more recently,
Lewis Hamilton (another McLaren product) driving
thousands of winter testing laps, shielded from public
scrutiny, to emerge wrinkle-free, ripe and ready to go.
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Magnussen, by contrast, had to make the transition
from the sub-F1 Renault World Series category to
motorsport’s premier league with an altogether
lesser degree of testing. In total, since the start of
his McLaren ‘grooming’ process, designed to take
Kevin from breakthrough talent to polished racer,
Magnussen, 21, completed only 677 laps over nine full
days of ‘live’ track testing.
How else, then, to ready a rookie for the competitive
intensity of his first grand prix weekend? The answer,
in this technologically advanced F1 age, lies in data and
accompanying simulator technology.
So sophisticated is the software and hardware now
available to a leading team such as McLaren, that
hours spent on simulator work and data analysis are
not only invaluable for driver development, they are
also extremely efficient, in terms of knowledge gained
for time spent.