Kevin Magnussen had Ferrari ‘sniffing around’ and turned down Red Bull

Kevin Magnussen has claimed that he could have ended up racing for either Ferrari or Red Bull during his F1 career.

The 32-year-old Dane, who has been left without an F1 drive for 2025 after losing his Haas seat to Esteban Ocon, has explained how his career could have looked very different.

During his first spell at Haas, Magnussen revealed he was in contention to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari. But Ferrari ultimately ended up promoting protege Charles Leclerc for 2019 after an impressive rookie campaign with Sauber.

"It was my third year in F1. I was 24 or something... 23? You know, anything was still possible. I still believed it was possible. And there were moments when I felt it was going in that direction,” Magnussen told Autosport.

"In 2018, we had a really good car in the first half of the year. Charles [Leclerc] had just arrived in F1 with Sauber. And the start of his first season wasn't great. And mine was really good! And then suddenly Ferrari was reaching out.

"Suddenly I was driving in their simulator, not for Haas, but for Ferrari. They were sniffing around. And I thought, okay... I was already getting excited about where this was going. But then Charles started to really kill it! And I heard nothing.

"I don't know how close it got. But I think if Charles had not started to perform, if he had had a s***** season all year long, I think I would have been one of the drivers they would have looked at.

“Sometimes you feel like you are getting close, but still not that close. That's the way it goes.”

Turning down Red Bull

Magnussen also had the opportunity to join the Red Bull stable and believes he could have eventually ended up racing alongside Max Verstappen at the senior team.

Following Daniel Ricciardo’s departure from Red Bull at the end of 2018, Magnussen’s management reached out to team principal Christian Horner, who opened the door to a potential seat with Toro Rosso.

But Magnussen was not interested in racing for Red Bull’s sister team at the time and turned down the offer, something he admits was probably a mistake in hindsight.

"And after that season, Daniel [Ricciardo] left Red Bull, and I remember my management speaking to Christian Horner, because of course everyone was talking about the Red Bull seat,” he explained.

“And Christian said, 'Look, there's nothing at Red Bull, but we can talk about Toro Rosso'. And I said, 'No, no, let's not do that,' which I probably should have done.

"It was Gasly who took that [Red Bull] seat. [Alex] Albon was promoted from F2 to Toro Rosso, and then Gasly didn't do a good job – and Albon came in! So, you know, the guy who got that Toro Rosso seat ended up at Red Bull.”

Despite acknowledging his career might have looked very different, Denmark's most successful F1 driver insists he has no regrets about how his time in the sport panned out.

"I could have done more, for sure," he said. "You know, I don't think anyone can say 'I couldn't have done more'. I think there will always be things... There were times when I didn't work hard enough.

“But then there were times when I worked my butt off. I don't really have any regrets. I don't think there's anything I could have done to change the course of my career. I really doubt that.”