Born and raised in Roskilde, Denmark, Magnussen is the son of Jan Magnussen, a four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class-winner and former Formula One driver. His cousin Dennis Lind and half-brother Luca Magnussen are also racing drivers.
Magnussen began his career in karting before stepping up to Formula Ford in Denmark in 2008, winning the championship with eleven victories from fifteen races. Between 2008 and 2009, he was forced to abandon racing and work as a factory welder due to lack of funding, before unexpectedly securing sponsorship for Formula Renault.
In 2009 he moved to Formula Renault 2.0 with Motopark Academy, finishing runner-up to António Félix da Costa in the Northern European Cup. He competed in German Formula Three in 2010 with Motopark Academy, winning the opening round at Oschersleben and claiming the rookie title. In 2011 he joined Carlin in the British Formula 3 Championship, taking seven race victories and finishing championship runner-up to teammate Felipe Nasr. He also competed at the Macau Grand Prix that year, qualifying seventh but being eliminated in the main race after a collision.
Magnussen moved to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2012 with Carlin, finishing seventh. In 2013 he switched to DAMS alongside Norman Nato and dominated the season, claiming five victories, eight other podiums and eight pole positions to win the championship by sixty points from runner-up Stoffel Vandoorne.
A member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme from 2010, Magnussen signed with McLaren for 2014 to partner Jenson Button, replacing Sergio Pérez. He chose car number 20, the same number he had used at DAMS.
At his debut at the Australian Grand Prix, Magnussen qualified fourth and finished in third place, 2.2 seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo. He was later promoted to second after Ricciardo was disqualified for fuel irregularities, making him the first rookie to finish second since Jacques Villeneuve at the 1996 Australian Grand Prix and the first Danish podium finisher in Formula One. He scored eleven further points-finishing results in 2014, including seventh-place finishes in Austria and Great Britain and fifth in Russia.
Fernando Alonso replaced Magnussen for 2015, and he continued at McLaren as a reserve driver. He substituted for Alonso at the Australian Grand Prix after doctors advised Alonso not to race following a concussion in testing, but suffered an engine failure on the formation lap and failed to start.
Magnussen joined Renault for 2016, partnering rookie Jolyon Palmer. His season was marred by incidents — a puncture in Australia, crashes in China and Monaco, collisions with Palmer in Spain and with Daniil Kvyat in Monaco — but he recovered to finish seventh in Russia, which became Renault's best result of the season. He suffered a high-speed crash at the Eau Rouge–Raidillon complex in Belgium. Magnussen finished the season sixteenth in the championship, scoring seven of Renault's eight points.
Magnussen signed with Haas for 2017, joining Romain Grosjean and replacing Esteban Gutiérrez. A notable moment came at the Hungarian Grand Prix when he forced Nico Hülkenberg off the track; Hülkenberg called him "the most unsporting driver on the grid," to which Magnussen replied with a memorable retort. He finished fourteenth in the championship with nineteen points.
In 2018, the Haas VF-18 was considerably more competitive. Magnussen qualified fifth in Australia — the team's highest-ever starting position at that point — and finished fifth in Bahrain. He achieved a sixth-place finish in Spain and France, and fifth in Austria behind Grosjean. At the Italian Grand Prix he clashed with Charles Leclerc in qualifying and collided with Sergio Pérez in the race. He set the fastest lap in Singapore after a late pit stop, the first fastest lap for himself and the team. He finished the season ninth in the championship with 56 points, a career best.
The VF-19 in 2019 proved uncompetitive. Magnussen's best finish was sixth in Australia. He took two further points finishes — seventh in Spain and tenth in Germany (after the Alfa Romeo drivers were penalised) — and recorded his third-fastest lap of the season in Singapore, though he did not finish in the top ten. He finished sixteenth in the championship.
The 2020 season saw Magnussen score only once, finishing tenth in Hungary after a strategy call put him third in the early stages and a post-race ten-second penalty for a team radio infringement. He and Grosjean both departed at the end of the season, replaced by Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Haas terminated its contract with Mazepin. Magnussen returned on a multi-year deal for 2022, partnering Schumacher. He started seventh and finished fifth in Bahrain on his return — one of only five top-five finishes in the team's history at that point.
At the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix, Magnussen took his maiden pole position in Formula One. He qualified first after George Russell spun at turn four and brought out a red flag during which conditions deteriorated. He became only the second driver to set a pole for a non-Ferrari team using a Ferrari engine, fourteen years after Sebastian Vettel did so for Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
For 2023, Magnussen partnered Nico Hülkenberg. He found the VF-23 incompatible with his preferred driving style and finished in points-paying positions three times, achieving three points to Hülkenberg's nine.
In 2024, Magnussen and Hülkenberg were retained. He announced ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that he would leave the team at the end of the season. At the Italian Grand Prix he received a ten-second penalty for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly, and the accumulated penalty points on his Super Licence resulted in a one-race ban — his first, and the first for any driver since Grosjean in 2012. He was replaced for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix by Oliver Bearman, who would be his permanent successor. He also missed the São Paulo Grand Prix weekend through illness, again replaced by Bearman. He finished seventh in Mexico City, his best result since 2022, and departed the team at the end of the year.
Magnussen achieved one pole position, three fastest laps and one podium finish across 185 Formula One starts.
Magnussen tested a Porsche 919 Hybrid in November 2015 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya but no contract resulted.
In 2021 he competed in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Chip Ganassi Racing, driving the No. 01 DPi car alongside Renger van der Zande. He won his first race on 12 June at the Detroit Grand Prix and concluded the season with four consecutive podium finishes. On 23 April it was announced that he would drive the No. 49 High Class Racing LMP2 car with his father Jan Magnussen and Anders Fjordbach at the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing 29th overall and seventeenth in the LMP2 class. He also appeared in one round of the IndyCar Series in June 2021, substituting for the injured Felix Rosenqvist with Arrow McLaren SP at the Grand Prix of Road America, qualifying 21st and retiring with mechanical issues.
In 2022, Magnussen raced the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing DPi car as a third driver alongside Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn before being released when he returned to Formula One. After the 2022 Formula One season finale, he raced alongside his father at the 2022 Gulf 12 Hours at Yas Marina Circuit, qualifying fifteenth and finishing seventh overall.
In December 2024, BMW M Motorsport announced Magnussen as a works driver for their LMDh programme. His first race with BMW M Team RLL was the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the team finished fourth.
Magnussen married Louise Gjørup in 2019 in a private ceremony. They have two daughters, born in 2021 and 2023, and live in Copenhagen. He mentors F1 Academy and F4 British Championship driver Alba Larsen, having begun around 2023 after she competed with his brother Luca Magnussen.
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