Is Kevin Magnussen the next Lewis Hamilton?

Lazy headline I know, but stay with me. Kevin Magnussen has risen through McLaren’s young driver program at a time when a lot has been written in the F1 press about pay drivers. Those drivers who have managed to fund their stay in Formula 1 perhaps at the expense of better drivers who are not backed as heavily. The likes of Pastor Maldonado securing a top line drive at Lotus is the obvious one.

This was particularly notable for the fact that Lotus openly said that if they could secure the finance they wanted to hire Nico Hulkenberg. They couldn’t so they didn’t and in stepped Maldonado with a tonne of Venezuelan cash behind him. Let’s not forget though that Maldonado is a race winner, even the drivers with money have a huge amount of talent to reach Formula 1. Even Max Chilton was a race winner in GP2.

It is sad though that money can be a deciding factor in who gets to drive where and who will rise up the grid. It’s a distinct aberration in the way Formula 1 is run that some of the better midfield teams and even now some of the top teams have to make this consideration when deciding who will drive for them. There’s enough money coming in that all teams could be run comfortably, but large amounts of money are siphoned off into Bernie and CVC’s coffers while the spread amongst the teams is incredibly unfair and tilted to those who already have an advantage.

However, amongst all the concerning talk of pay drivers not allowing new talent to shine through in the top echelon of motor sport, the curious thing about 2014 is that the two rookies who have been promoted to rarefied air of Formula 1 have been picked on talent.

Admittedly Toro Rosso’s new driver is Russian Daniil Kvyat who has been hired just as the first Russian Grand Prix comes on the calendar. But let’s not be cynical, he is the current GP3 champion, like Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, so I look forward to seeing how he gets on alongside Jean-Eric Vergne. These are the kind of drivers who should be in the sport.

So it’s with even more glee I anticipate Magnussen’s arrival into the sport, not least because he is slotting into the McLaren seat vacated by Sergio Perez. He’s been under the McLaren young driver scheme since 2009 when he was just 17 years old.

So is he the next Lewis Hamilton? Well no, I wouldn’t seek to categorise him as such at all, he is Kevin Magnussen who has his own talents. If anything he is on a steadily rising upward curve. Whereas Hamilton won pretty much every championship he entered, Magnussen hasn’t reigned supreme. However as the Formula’s have got bigger he has got more successful. He was Danish Formula Ford champion, but after this success he didn’t win a title again until last year in World Series by Renault 3.5 which featured a great many talents I’d hope and expect to reach Formula 1 in the next few years including fellow McLaren young driver Stoffel Vandoorne.

That’s not to say he didn’t have success, his talent was obvious and in the Formula 1 young driver test at Silverstone last year he created a strong impression, so much so that Perez was moved on after just one year at McLaren to make room.

But what makes him so exciting is that he is probably the best prepared rookie we’ve had for years. He’s not had the testing miles he would have had in the past, but he’ll have had a lot of simulator experience and has been groomed by McLaren for five years now; for them to promote him without farming him out to a midfield team first means they have a lot of faith that Magnussen’s is a special talent just like Lewis was…is.

I’m really looking forward to how he comes up against Jenson Button. Gary Paffet, McLaren development driver, has said that he expects Magnussen will push Button, which is something Button needs to get the best out of himself anyway. I expect the 2014 regulations to suit Jenson too, so if Magnussen can compete with and even beat the former world champion, then we’ll have a superstar almost immediately.

At the very least I expect a longer and better McLaren career than his dad Jan Magnussen had in 1995, who had a two race stint before fading out of Formula 1 with Stewart Grand Prix a few years later after he’d shown such promise in junior Formulae.

There’s lots of other drivers to get excited about in 2014, the aforementioned Kvyat, the progress of Bottas at Williams, especially as he’s not up against Felipe Massa who I think will be rejuvenated now he’s left Ferrari.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez make a tasty combination at Force India. While at the front of the grid, I’m looking forward to seeing if Daniel Ricciardo can get one over on the four time champion Sebastian Vettel. It’s Ricciardo’s chance to shine and he might just get one chance with so much talent on the Red Bull young driver program coming through.

Ferrari obviously have quite the pairing with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, although I don’t think it’ll be acrimonious between them it might get heated between the Spaniard and the team. I think it could get quite tense between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, especially if as is predicted Mercedes could be holding a title winning car.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado could surprise everyone. Grosjean particularly I think will shine this year if Lotus can get it together.

A lot has been talked about with the regulation changes but the drivers are the heart of the sport, they are the focus and there’s a lot to be excited about as 2014 gets going.