Former Haas boss Steiner casts doubt on Magnussen's future

LONDON : Guenther Steiner revived Kevin Magnussen's Formula One career two years ago but the former Haas team boss now feels his favourite Dane may be ripe for replacement, along with some other long-serving drivers.

Magnussen, 31, has scored five points from 12 races this season compared to Haas team mate Nico Hulkenberg's 22, with the 36-year-old German finishing an impressive sixth in the most recent two.

Hulkenberg will join Sauber next season and Ferrari-powered Haas look set for an all-new lineup with British rookie Oliver Bearman already signed up and Esteban Ocon looking the frontrunner to join him.

"I love Kevin...(but) what he is doing lately against Hulkenberg is not impressive to say the least," Steiner told reporters at a recent promotional event for Buffalo Trace bourbon.

"We need to be open about that... either Hulkenberg is so good that we don't know about it or Kevin is just in the moment not where he needs to be to have a seat in F1. There is this time when you need to realise...

"There's quite a few now if you look in there," added the Italian, who left Haas at the end of last year but remains a fan favourite through the Netflix docu-series 'Drive to Survive'.

"We have got Checo (Sergio Perez), Dani (Daniel Ricciardo), Kevin, (Valtteri) Bottas. Bottas is difficult to say something about because the car is not really good so we don't really know where he is.

"But there is quite a lot of these guys and the people which give them a seat need to think about this, is this the best for the team?"

Perez's form has plunged since he signed a contract extension with Red Bull in June, the 34-year-old Mexican scoring only 15 points from his last six races while triple world champion team mate Max Verstappen has won seven