Stoffel Vandoorne is set to be named as a McLaren driver in 2018, despite having a difficult start to his first full-time season in Formula 1.
McLaren set to confirm Stoffel Vandoorne for 2018
Vandoorne was signed by McLaren in 2016 to replace Jenson Button after the 2009 champion announced that he would be retiring from F1 after spending 17 years in the sport. So far this season, Vandoorne has failed to live up to expectations, being consistently outperformed by his team mate, Fernando Alonso. While Alonso has secured two points so far in 2017, Vandoorne remains without a single top ten finish, with his best result so far this season being two 12th place finishes at the Azerbaijan and Austrian Grand Prix.
A difficult McLaren-Honda package has not helped Vandoorne this season, and has been a constant frustration for the Belgian and the team, but despite a disappointing start, McLaren’s executive director Zak Brown admitted that he is happy with Vandoorne, especially with his improvement in performance in Austria after McLaren ran a new specification engine during the race.
“Yeah, we’re happy with Stoffel,” said Brown. “He’s in a difficult situation going up against Fernando Alonso and then the lack of reliability. Fernando can adapt to a lot of these issues quicker than Stoffel because he has not been to a lot of these tracks. We think he’s a future world champion and we don’t expect any change there.”
So far in the first nine races of 2017, Vandoorne has been out qualified 8-0 by Alonso while also being out qualified by Jenson Button at the Monaco Grand Prix when Alonso was competing in IndyCar for the Indy 500.
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