Kevin Magnussen has issued a clarification to his widely-reported comments this week that he would “die in car” rather than hold back.
The original quotes were circulated just after the Haas F1 driver was criticised by Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly after the pair clashed during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the weekend.
Gasly had subsequently dubbed Magnussen “the most dangerous guy I ever race with”, following a big moment and high speed contact between the two drivers in Baku.
“I race hard,” Reuters subsequently reported the Dane as saying. “Sometimes you have to be a lot more aggressive when you’re fighting out there.
“I will give everything. I will die in the car. I won’t hold back. I would put my life on [the line].”
But on Wednesday, Magnussen explained that the quotes were taken from an interview carried out before the race, and were not a reaction to the events on Sunday – or to Gasly’s comments.
- ‘I’ll die in the car’, says uncompromising Magnussen
“The interview was done before the race in Baku, and is not minded on the incident with Pierre in the race,” Magnussen said on social media network Twitter.
“I didn’t squeeze Pierre on purpose, and have apologised to him many times after the incident.
“I don’t want to die in a race car,” he emphasised. “I was expressing my willingness to give absolutely everything in my power to achieve success.
“Success to me obviously isn’t having accidents or getting penalties, but finishing races in as high a position as possible.
“I am living my childhood dream of racing in Formula 1,” he continued. “I’ve put my whole life into achieving that dream.
“It is only natural for me to be giving absolutely everything I’ve got, to achieve success in racing.
“And the day I no longer do that I will retire from racing immediately.”
Magnussen was handed a ten second penalty and received two penalty points on his superlicense for the clash with Gasly, which took place during the final restart with four laps remaining in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“[Magnussen] moved unpredictably and unnecessarily to the left and collided with car 10 [Gasly], which was maintaining its direction,” the race stewards concluded.
He also faced a separate investigation into improper DRS use during the race. Stewards decided not to issue any penalties for that, after reviewing the circumstances of the alleged infraction.
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