Thierry Boutsen has backed his fellow countryman Stoffel Vandoorne to have a good career in Formula 1, despite having a difficult start to his first full season with McLaren.
Thierry Boutsen tells Stoffel Vandoorne to have patience at McLaren
Boutsen enjoyed a fairly successful career in F1 that spanned ten years, where he drove for for Arrows, Bennetton, Williams, Ligier and Jordan. It was with Williams that he achieved the most success, securing all three of his wins with the team. This was at the period that McLaren was one of the powerhouses of Formula 1, admitting that it “hurts” to see the team struggle with its renewed engine partnership with Honda.
“If you like Formula One, it hurts to see where they are,” Boutsen told Dutch publication Formule 1. “But Stoffel must persevere. As a driver you have to block out the rear view mirror because you have to always look ahead.
“He still has time. He’s only 25 and my first victory also took time. But I knew from the start ‘Give me a good car and you’ll hear the Belgian anthem’,” he added. “So he must have patience. From what I saw in the lower classes I can say confidently that Stoffel has the potential to be world champion.”
Boutsen continued, saying that Vandoorne’s presence on the grid alone is a credit to his talent, with it being notoriously difficult for Belgian drivers to break into Formula 1.
“For Belgians it is so much harder to get to F1,” he confirmed. “Belgium has no big sponsors, so you have to do it all alone. I know it well, as at Williams I was better than my teammate Riccardo Patrese but as an Italian he was commercially more interesting.
“And another sponsor, Labatt, wanted a driver for the British market, which was Nigel Mansell. As a Belgian you always have to show more than an Englishman, Italian or German,” Boutsen insisted.
Vandoorne made his Formula 1 debut at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix for McLaren where he stood in for an injured Fernando Alonso, enjoying a points finish on his first attempt. Following the retirement of Jenson Button at the end of last season, the Belgian was promoted to a full-time drive at the Woking-based team.
Before the summer break, Vandoorne managed to break into the points for the first time this season at Hungary, finishing in tenth place, rounding up a double points finish for McLaren.
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