Kevin Magnussen has come out to clarify a comment made to Reuters in which he claimed he would be prepared to risk his life while racing on track.
The timing of a report later published by Crash.net was awkward as it came after Pierre Gasly labelled the Dane the “most dangerous guy I’ve raced with” in the wake of contact between the pair at almost 190mph along the main straight in Baku.
And it was just another example of the limits the Haas driver has been known to reach when going wheel-to-wheel, something he makes absolutely no apologies for.
“I race hard,” he said in the interview. “In a situation like this with a midfield team, you’re not guaranteed to score points and sometimes you have nothing to lose.
“You might get a penalty, you might lose your front-wing but there’s nothing to lose if you’re 11th. Go for it.
“I don’t like compromises,” he added. “I will give everything. I will die in the car. I won’t hold back. I would put my life on [the line]. Absolutely.
“I love my family, and there’s so many things in life I enjoy, but when I’m in the car there’s nothing else that means anything.”
However, in a tweet posted on Wednesday, Magnussen insists there was no relation between his comments and the incident with Gasly on Sunday.
“The interview was done before the race in Baku and was not minded on the incident with Pierre in the race,” he said.
“I didn’t squeeze Pierre on purpose and have apologised many times after the incident.”
He also looked to put his comments into context, claiming: “I don’t want to die in a race car 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 and I’ve put my whole life into achieving that dream so it is only natural for me to be giving absolutely everything I’ve got.”
The former McLaren driver also made it clear his current approach is only because of the intense midfield battle he finds himself in with Haas.
“If you are fighting for the championship, you have to play the long game,” he explained.
“You have to change your approach. If I was fighting for the championship, you wouldn’t see me racing the same way.”
