Stoffel Vandoorne

Its been announced this week that Belgian Mclaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne will return to the GP2 series in 2015 again driving for the ART team. Vandoorne is hoping a successful championship year with ART will be the pathway for him to get into F1 for 2016, preferably with Mclaren, but is that actually really likely to happen?

Vandoorne’s potential is not in any doubt. He won the F4 Eurocup title in 2010 and then had a close tussle with Dani Kvyat in Eurocup 2.0 in 2012, a tussle he eventually won and took the title. In 2013 he jumped up to the WSR 3.5 series and scored a win on his debut. He scored 4 wins in total with 10 podiums in 17 races, all this in the much unfancied Fortec car as well. He was piped to the title by fellow Mclaren development driver Kevin Magnussen who had already done a year in the series and was driving the all mighty DAMS car. K-Mag landed himself an F1 seat with Mclaren and Vandoorne switched feeder series to join ART in GP2. Once again Vandoorne scored a win on his debut before suffering the same fate the majority of rookies do when joining GP2 and falling backwards whilst getting used to the difficult Pirelli tyres. To be fair to Vandoorne this only lasted for a few rounds and by the time he got to round 7 in Austria he was back up there with the front runners. Unfortunately for him Jolyon Palmer, again in a mighty DAMS car, was already out of sight but he did manage to haul back to 2nd in the championship with a further 3 wins and 5 podiums. He was cost better results by some questionable tactical decision by ART on occasions too, especially when the failed to pit him under the safety car when the entire rest of the field did leaving him in an almost impossible position. Anyone who saw his comeback drive that day can’t have failed to be impressed.

Vandoorne will most likely go into the GP2 2015 season as favourite for the title, even if he does have some stiff competition in Gasly and Lynn (DAMS again!), but will even a dominant season in this series guarantee him a seat in F1? In these times of financial trouble pure talent does not now make it a certainty that an F1 seat will become available. Vandoorne is currently backed by Mclaren but with a lack of so-called feeder teams where would they put him? They already have K-Mag on their books who has been dropped from race seat to 3rd driver for 2015 and they have another talented youngster in Nick de Vries queuing up right behind Vandoorne. With Alonso and Button locked into the F1 seats and Vandoorne not even being next in line is the Mclaren root even a valid one for him to get into F1? On the other hand if he breaks away from Mclaren he has no funding so would a seat become available to him at all then either.

Rumour has it that back in 2013 Vandoorne was approached by Helemt Marko and offered the Toro Rosso seat for 2014. Vandoorne decided he wasn’t ready and that he would stick with Mclaren. That seat then went to his old rival in Eurocup Kvyat who now in 2015 will be driving for the Red Bull A team. Whilst at the time I thought Vandoorne had made a wise decision with hindsight it looks like he may have missed out.

Can F1 afford to miss out on talent like Vandoorne? Are you confident we’ll see him in F1 one day? Have you been impressed by him or do you think he is just all hype? I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
 
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That was impressive Vandoorne without the new updates was still ahead of Alonso all weekend

They are some saying if Mclaren Renault is competitive next season it is potentially the strongest driver line up on the grid
 
So apparently Vandorne is under pressure at McLaren because he's not keeping pace with Alonso. Being as all the time, energy and resources are poured into Fernando and Vandorne has twice this season had to sacrifice his final run in quali to tow the Spaniard down the straight I think this is a bit of a joke.

Poor old Stoffel. He really could have been a contender but has been shafted by taking time to develop in the junior formulas rather than jump straight into F1. What might have been if he'd taken that Torro Rosso drive. Even if he stays around for next year he'll probably be up against Lando Norris who will get everyone's panties in a bunch.
 
RasputinLives The momentum is with Lando Norris at the moment leading F2 still . Vandoorne has been outqualified by Alonso so that does not help.

If Mclaren don;t improve quickly enough then Alonso may leave which is a slight reprieve for Vandoorne but then he is likely to be up against Norris

I thought Mclaren's young driver programme was effective but because of the impact Hamilton made and the additional problems it created . They've tried to do things more methodically as well as cater for Alonso's ego but I think people should look at Kevin Magnussen - the previous incumbent now is doing a great job at Haas and trouncing Grosjean despite his antics.

Vandoorne needs one decent result to get him going again
 
Its a pity that he is getting the Fisichella / Piquet Jnr/ Massa treatment to Alonso. He is far more talented than that.

Van Doorne was up there and messed Q3 by a tenth.

I am not saying Stoffel should try and screw his teammate but he needs to remain strong mentally to come over this. I wonder if K Mag was still at Mclaren would he be as courteous to Alonso seeing he seems to annoy every driver on the grid
 
I see what your saying Galahad but it's been more than that. In Baku Vandoorne had to sacrifice his final quali run in order to give Alonso a tow on his. If Ferrari had made Kimi do this for Vettel then we'd still be getting like a hundred articles on it.
 
Indeed, and that was unfair, however Stoffel's performance in Monaco was poor - he was running 11th, falling away from Gasly & Hulkenberg with no way realistically to keep Verstappen behind given the alternate strategy - so I can understand McLaren wanting to help the guy who was going to score them decent points.
 
Vandoorne we know is a great driver proof of that in fr 3.5 & gp2. That 2nd season he was dominant. But he starting to get a repuation bit like bottas at the end of 2017. as it doesnt help that he has been outqualified at every race this season usually by 2 - 4 tenths (22-3 since he joined). Its that thing. Yes might be the case in Monaco but what about the other 5. As someone said something like "excuses stops with the stopwatch" at highest level of sport. You are always under huge pressure to deliver

Alonso like mourinho in football when your beating your teammate, performing well you get more leniency & this is the season so far as well
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"McLaren still kept Vandoorne out until lap 20 (...)"

“I think we should have pitted five laps earlier."


So Stoffel wanted, or was supposed to pit at lap 15.

“We were on the same strategy as Nico and we should have finished right behind or even in front of him."

And Nico pitted on lap... 50.

I mean, I like Stoffel but how is this a valid complaint?
 
https://www.planetf1.com/news/vandoorne-not-worried-about-losing-mclaren-seat/

From the article:

“I have a long agreement with McLaren, so I’m not worried about that, and I’m especially ready for the day when I can really race with a competitive car.


“A contract in Formula 1 remains a contract in Formula 1. Of course you have to perform but the team has complete trust in me.


“I’m not worried at all.”


Yes Stoffel, no one has ever reneged on an F1 contract have they?
 
That is an interesting statement from Abiteboul which means he probably is not pressured to sign a French driver or expected to promote a junior driver from the Renault academy

Maybe there is a lifeline for Vandoorne
 
Vandoorne in F1:
Season 2017
- qualifications: 3 - 16 vs Alonso and 0 - 1 vs Button
- race (where both finished): 1 - 5 vs Alonso

Season 2018
- qualifications: 0 - 14 vs Alonso
- race (where both finished): 0 - 5 vs Alonso

I agree with MvLaren isn't good long time.
But it's a weak excuse for the results that Vandorn shows compared to his teammate.
Even with the fact that the partner - twice champion.
Too many advances was handed out to Vandorn in 2017
 
Stoffel Vandoorne like a few drivers the stats dont look good but they dont do him justice he is a very good driver. 1 of the best youngsters look back to GP2 season he won the championship by 160pts in process broke nearly every record he got the most wins, most feature race wins, most poles, most consecutive poles, most points, most podiums, most podiums in a season, most points & most points in a season. it had to judge in a McLaren as I can only think of Williams with a worse car. just unlucky to have 1 of the greats at the top of his game as his teammate

if he can go somewhere get some confidence that the poor car has taken from him & then he will be good as you dont become a poor driver overnight
 
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