Magnussen thinks he can emulate Hamilton in rookie F1 season

Although the young Danish driver does not have the luxury of the amount of testing mileage that Hamilton was able to complete before his own debut campaign in 2007, Magnussen is still positive that he can shine.

"He [Hamilton] had great success at McLaren arriving there as a rookie and it is definitely possible to do," said Magnussen in an exclusive interview with AUTOSPORT.

"I know he worked incredibly hard, and the good thing is that I am in the same team as he was.

"They [McLaren] have had a rookie before; they know how to treat a rookie and how to work with a rookie. That is good, a really good thing."

Although Magnussen accepts things are more difficult due to F1's tight testing restrictions, he says other factors are more in his favour, such as the way the current generation of drivers started competing so young.

"My generation of drivers have all started very early," he explained. "The previous generation of drivers started a bit later.

"So if you take a driver at 19 from my generation, he will be better prepared at 19 than a driver was from the previous generation because we have started earlier.

"I am not saying that I am 100 per cent ready for F1. You will always feel like you can do more, and you need a little bit more time."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh thinks that Magnussen's chances of impressing are boosted by the fact that the regulations are so different this year.

"You can say actually this is an ideal opportunity because everything the older drivers have learned, all that experience, is different," said Whitmarsh.

"The power train is very, very different. The complexity of the whole energy cycling, and what is going to go on, is very different. So on that front he has as much experience as Fernando Alonso or Jenson Button."

* For the full exclusive interview with Kevin Magnussen, where he talks about wanting pressure to succeed and the lessons he has taken on board from father Jan, click here.