Jan Magnussen

Like so many other later stars of his profession, this Dane from Roskilde has been karting since he was a teenager. At the age of twelve, he became national champion, a success he repeated the following year. In 1987 and 1989, he won the junior world championship and in 1990 the senior class. After initially achieving sporadic success in the Ford and Vauxhall Lotus formulae and Formula 3, he became British Formula 3 champion in 1994 with 14 victories in 18 races.

It was not least this outstanding result that qualified him for a place in the AMG-Mercedes C-Class DTM in 1995, in which he completed the entire DTM/ITC season in the AMG-Mercedes team. At the same time, McLaren-Mercedes also secured his services as a Formula 1 test driver.

Magnussen's first season in a touring car ended sensationally in second place in the ITC and eighth in the DTM standings. In total, the Dane claimed one victory, four second places and one third place, among others. In the following season, which was now only held under the International Touring Car Championship brand, he did not compete in two of 13 events and still placed tenth in the final standings.

By this time, Magnussen had long since put out feelers into the North American Indy Car World Series. In the summer of 1996, he was still filling in for the injured Paul Tracy at Team Penske in one race and, as a replacement for Emerson Fittipaldi, who was suffering from the consequences of an accident, he contested three more races with Team Hogan Penske, in each of which he had a Mercedes-Benz power unit provided by Ilmor at his disposal.

In 1997 and 1998, Magnussen was offered the chance of a permanent Formula 1 entry. He stayed with the Stewart Grand Prix team for one and a half years, but only scored one championship point during this time. After that, the Dane shifted his focus to the USA, where he achieved numerous successes in 1999, mainly with LMP cars and, from 2003, with GT cars, in addition to seven more races in the CART series. Magnussen's stint as a works driver for Corvette Racing was particularly rewarding, with him taking class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in each of the years from 2004 to 2006 and again in 2009.