How F1's new Raikkonen has finally arrived

A star of the early 2018 Formula 1 races after some up-and-down seasons. Old school, direct and to the point, non-political and revelling in a car that offers him the right characteristics to carry the speed he wants into the corner. Sound familiar?

Many will already be picturing the 'iceman' in his sunglasses and red cap, who has enjoyed a run of three consecutive podium finishes unprecedented in his second Ferrari career. But this is not about Kimi Raikkonen, it's about a driver who hails from the other end of the Baltic sea and is doing a very good impression of the Flying Finn at his best.

Kevin Magnussen has a seventh and a 10th place to his name already this season, on top of what should have been fourth place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. This makes him one of the stars of Formula 1's hugely competitive 'Class B', along with Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg. He's also got the character on- and off-track to appeal to those who love 38-year-old Raikkonen's insouciant froideur and who might be looking for a new idol in a year or two.

It's only a sample set of three races, but the most encouraging thing we've seen from Magnussen, whose peaks were always high, is consistency this year. So what has allowed a McLaren reject who had been only a bit part player during the past two seasons to perform so strongly?

The easy answer is the Haas is a quick, consistent car, so of course Magnussen is doing well. But there's more to it than that. Last year, he didn't always deliver when the pressure was on in qualifying and complained about how difficult it was to get a handle on a car that could be unpredictable. This year he's at one with it and, as well as being in a better car, he's exploiting its potential.

One factor is that it gives him the characteristics he requires in a car, after spending last year in a Haas that often better-suited team-mate Romain Grosjean. There's a clear clash of styles between the two: Grosjean describes the Haas as understeery and argues that's something his team-mate loves. Magnussen rails against the idea that the car understeers and revels in the level of grip at the rear, which allows him to attack and carry speed into the apex.

Magnussen has an interesting style, combining the desire to carry that speed with a willingness to hustle it later in the corner. It's half a classical style, with a smooth entry but an eagerness to feel the car and get the power on quickly at the exit. It works well too, and during my trackside observations in China on Saturday it never crossed the line from aggressive to counter-productive. Despite certain similarities with Raikkonen, his demands are different to that of the Finn, who would require a stronger front end than the Haas offers.

"Compared to Romain I was struggling last year but I know why and I have a better feeling." Kevin Magnussen

Magnussen has played a part in making the car this way. In his first season he built up a good relationship with the team that, at times, found Grosjean's desire for a car that gave him perfect characteristics frustrating.

While Grosjean was seen as a driver who was quicker at his best and would deliver half-a-dozen astonishing qualifying performances, Magnussen was more dependable with a slightly lower peak. There were also some strong race performances, such as a stunning drive to eighth in Mexico in a car he didn't find easy to drive.

This helped him to build a good relationship with the team and, crucially, be taken seriously in terms of directing the kinds of characteristics he needed. Going into a second race season with Haas, the first time he has had continuity from season to season, has paid dividends.

"When you go to the track, even from winter testing, you can sit down with your engineers and look in detail at what worked well and what didn't, then you can pick the things that work and change the things that didn't," says Magnussen, who admits to being surprised at just how beneficial this effect is. "You start at a much higher level, with much better preparation.

"There are still going to be highs and lows, I'm sure, but when you can prepare you start at a higher level."

This has helped him to be one of the stars of the season to date. Autosport's driver ratings have him at an outstanding nine out of 10 on average (and 8.7 from our readers) and now you just expect him to be in the top 10. Always a strong racer, he has managed to cut back on the incidents while still being willing to tough it out when necessary. His 10th place in China showed he has the grit, since when both he and Grosjean were compromised by the safety car it was Magnussen who salvaged the point.

There's a fascinating battle between the two to assert themselves in the team. Currently Magnussen is leading 2-1 in qualifying and 3-0 in race performances but, as Grosjean is quick to point out, a minor engine problem in Australia stopped him from being the lead Haas. And with Magnussen raising his qualifying game, Grosjean has got a lot to think about.

"Against Romain last year I was a little up and down," says Magnussen of his improved form in qualifying. "I had some inconsistencies in the car I couldn't deal with that Romain was really good at. But in my first year compared with Jenson Button I made Q3 more than he did, and against a less strong team-mate in Jolyon Palmer I crushed him in qualifying. Compared with Romain I was struggling, but I know why and I have a better feeling."

Corner-entry stability plays a part in that, but so do factors such as tyre preparation and brake feel. All of this feeds into Magnussen becoming a driver who is finally able to access and deliver on his ability more consistently. If he can sustain this, and it's a big if, then he might start to crop up on the radar of bigger teams again.

"I think the trend started last year," says Haas team principal Gunther Steiner of Magnussen. "It's a personal confidence that he trusts the team, he trusts himself. We all know he has got talent, it's just how to get it out. With the ups and downs in his career, he sometimes lost a bit of confidence and it started to come back this year. This year, starting with a competitive car, that gave him that click where he's a lot more confident than he was before."

It's been a while since the 25-year old was fashionable in F1, during his early days with McLaren. But if you think of his journey since then - dropped by one of F1's most famous teams, left largely on the sidelines for a year, only picked up by Renault because Pastor Maldonado's money dried up ahead of 2016, then off to Haas for last season - is it any surprise he's been an erratic performer?

His McLaren season in 2014 started with a bang with a stunning second place in Australia after Daniel Ricciardo's exclusion (surviving the car snapping left off the line because of its savage power delivery), which was one of the best results ever achieved by a debutant. The first part of the season went well enough, with the usual incidents and accidents you'd expect for a rookie.

"I was screwed mentally with McLaren. It's a very big team, really political and there's so much pressure" Kevin Magnussen

What was disappointing was that he didn't seem to kick on in the second half of the season, although his fifth place in the Russian Grand Prix was a highlight. With McLaren courting Fernando Alonso for 2015 and Button ensconced in the team despite signs his enthusiasm might already be starting to wane, Magnussen was in an impossible situation. Doubly so with McLaren junior Stoffel Vandoorne tearing it up in GP2.

"I never saw any pressure from Vandoorne when I was at McLaren," says Magnussen. "I saw a lot of pressure when we were told Fernando had signed. Not very long into my F1 career I learned that one of either me or Jenson was going to go, so I'm straight up against the world champion, a really tough team-mate, and I've got to convince the team to continue with me.

"It was tough, I did well and I convinced the team to continue but there were some political fights at the top that meant a minority of those at the top wanted to go against the majority."

There were all sorts of reasons that McLaren did not continue with a driver that less than a year earlier had been touted as its future, although Vandoorne's rise certainly played a part in Magnussen being discarded after a season on the bench in 2015.

Commercial pressures meant Button was more appealing, and incoming engine partner Honda was keen on McLaren retaining a driver who had enjoyed success for it in the previous decade. Attempts to woo Danish companies into coming on board, which included Ron Dennis making a trip to Denmark, came to nothing and Magnussen ended up on the scrapheap. Given the trajectory he was on, is it any wonder he struggled to kick on in the second half of his rookie year?

"I was screwed mentally with McLaren," says Magnussen. "It's a very big team, really political and there's so much pressure. So many things going on, so many people in charge, so many different opinions. It's very hard to get into a team like that and then struggle. The whole team was under pressure because it was at the beginning of the downward slope of McLaren, and people were a bit stressed. It's tough to be a rookie in that situation."

The year with Renault in 2016 offered some similar political problems, not to mention a dreadful car, and the team's attempts to recruit just about every other driver in the paddock led to Magnussen turning down a new one-year deal in favour of something longer-term at Haas.

By F1 standards it's a simple, straightforward team. He has two bosses - team principal Gunther Steiner and team owner Gene Haas. Like the aforementioned Raikkonen, he delivers his best when things are straightforward and to the point. Just like an old-school racer should.

"It's a nicer environment than at McLaren," he says. "But I think I would handle the situation at McLaren now with a few years on my back. I've matured a lot over these years and I'm sure if I did it all again, it would be a lot different. But here I am, and I'm happy about the situation."

There is the thorny question of his attitude off-track. On- and off-record, several of Magnussen's employers have questioned whether he had the work ethic required of an elite sportsman. But the man himself has consistently denied that this has been raised as a problem with him.

Given these suggestions have flared up at both McLaren and Renault - not to mention the DAMS team he won the Formula Renault 3.5 title for in 2013 - there's clearly something there. But Magnussen is not interested in changing his approach, precisely because he insists there's never been any such problem.

He seems like part of the fabric of the paddock, even if he's never going to be the polished, corporate 21st century grand prix star

"I've always done my best to maximise my own potential, I've always worked hard," he says. "I had some comments from Ron when I was out in 2015 and then there were some comments like that in Renault. I was always surprised to see those comments and I don't think if you asked this team they would say anything like that. I haven't changed my approach."

That Magnussen thinks he's doing everything possible and some of his employers don't are not necessarily incompatible. It's just that, like Raikkonen, he has a clear idea of what needs to be done and doesn't care about the rest of it. And perhaps that's what allows him to get the best out of himself. When things are going well, as they are now, it's hard to fault him.

If this is a new phase of Magnussen's career, and that remains an 'if' as we're only talking about three races, then at the very least he's set for a long career in F1 as a strong midfield performer. For the first time, he seems like part of the fabric of the paddock, even if he's never going to be the polished, corporate 21st century grand prix star - and that's not necessarily a criticism given the need for strong characters at the top of F1.

Whether Magnussen can go further depends on him delivering consistently and proving beyond any doubt that he has the focus, determination and the all-round game to have a shot at being a serious name on a top team's shortlist. But what cannot be denied is that he has real fortitude, which has served him well in taking the long way round to re-establish himself in F1 after what happened at McLaren.

Perhaps in Haas, he has the ideal team. And in Magnussen, Haas might just have the ideal driver.

To return to the Raikkonen comparison, history tells us what can be achieved when a driver like that is in the right place at the right time.