Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, Hungaroring, 2018

Vandoorne’s chassis was “back to normal” in Hungary

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In the round-up: Stoffel Vandoorne is much happier with his McLaren after the team reverted back to an old chassis for the last race.

What they say

It’s been back to normal which was positive. Good to have a more normal weekend, let’s say, where I had a normal Friday working on the set-up again and not constantly chasing something else. That was good, so I’m happy.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Should Brendon Hartley get another Formula 1 season at Toro Rosso?

He’s been very unlucky at times with car failures and the like seeming to affect him more than Gasly, but all things being equal, he’s been some distance from his team-mate.

If only for lack of Red Bull backed alternatives for 2019, I could see him being retained for another year as a benchmark.

He reminds me a little of Sebastien Bourdais and his outing in the Toro Rosso. A little older, superstar in other series etc. He was some distance from young Vettel, but was also unlucky, consistent and a good benchmark for Buemi the following year before being replaced.

I hope he gets at least the rest of the season to give him a fair bite, but he’s clearly not top tier in this formula and wouldn’t be hugely missed if he was to be replaced.
Ben Needham (@Ben-n)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Vandoorne’s chassis was “back to normal” in Hungary”

  1. Vettel fan 17 (@)
    9th August 2018, 0:09

    It’s amazing, isn’t it? Not to long ago everything seemed fine now we’ve lost Marchionne and nearly Lauda. Life moves fast, enjoy it while you can

    1. Lauda moves onto his third life 😁

  2. Hemingway (@)
    9th August 2018, 0:16

    I find it shocking how long it took McLaren to sort this issue out with Vandoorne’s chassis. Wasted races, wasted points. Management are a complete yoke

    1. They certainly have egg on their faces.

      Sorry that was terrible but I could not resist

    2. Im in tears!

    3. Karma!

    4. I have been reading a book about F1 engineering by a previous F1 engineer. It is fascinating stuff. However one paragraph refers to Ron Dennis. Despite working for another team the Engineer says how much pressure they would feel if Ron was watching them from across the pit lane. They were aware of his level of expertise and experience and would feel more pressure being watched by him than their own bosses! He commented on how Ron would stay well after all the other team bosses had gone home and would watch the various teams working on their cars. He was watching to find out if there was anything McLaren could learn from the way these other teams worked. He was constantly looking to improve every tiny aspect of what they did. Since he left I think they are now run by people that are better at talking than building race cars…

      1. What’s that book lee?

        1. The Chariot Makers by Steve Matchett. He was a Benetton Engineer. It is a brilliant insight into the side of F1 we do not always hear about.

    5. If it had been Alonso’s car, it would have been fixed much quicker :)

  3. Claire Williams’ plan if no more Stroll money? get another pay driver who comes with more money than talent.

    1. Unfortuantely that is how F1 works. Ferrari gets all the money for doing nothing and the middle to bottom teams have to get money however they can. This is even more of an issue now that tv audiences have dropped so much due to pay walls as sponsorship on the cars is now worth much much less.

      I hope Williams can get back on top again as they are a proper race team. However I think it is a tough ask for that to happen quickly.

  4. Well, I’m looking forward to getting to know more about Williams’ plan for the future now that the Stroll’s millions are going to be shifted to FI instead.
    – I agree with the COTD.
    – That long pit stop posted by F1 on Instagram, though. Reminiscent to Ricciardo’s pit stop blunder in Monaco as well as Vettel’s and Webber’s on the same venue five years earlier.

  5. Williams knew Stroll was looking at something else since the time Lawrence said they want to do a “Haas” with Mercedes and they denied. Really eager to see that plan panning out.

    1. If only they could get the guy back who last won a race for them; all would be solved.

      1. Apart from his funds having been long dispersed in the morass that is Venezuelan public fincances @coldfly

        1. On the plus side, for just 10 quid, Williams could have a couple of million Bolivar to spend.

          1. Read a story the other day about Venezuelan inflation and their gas price. Turns out gasoline (petrol) price is controlled by the government at one Bolivar/liter. One US dollar is trading at 3,500,000 Bolivar, so $1 could buy about 924,000 US gallons of gas the tough part would be getting it out of the country. True story: http://www.thedrive.com/news/22696/thanks-to-crazy-inflation-1-u-s-will-get-you-925000-gallons-of-premium-gas-in-venezuela

  6. Looking forward to Williams’ plan unfolding.

    I’m really hoping they start to show some sign of turning their fortunes around get past the rather disastrous experiment with the Strolls.

  7. Its NOT LS his seat didn’t fit right. Like we all get what he is on about. Esp when u take uer car in for repars and they move your seat.

  8. Billionaires buy Formula One teams then asking management “how do we run this thing?” LOL
    Nothing has changed and before some jump up and down, Lawrence Stoll and his mates just saved an F1 team.
    He may have bought his son a better seat up the grid, but Lance can drive, but without rich guys like Lawrence we don’t have F1- its always been a rich mans sport………….. there are a few exceptions ..

    1. I agree, sometimes pay drivers are beneficial for the sport, yet money is not just beneficial its an absolute necessity in F1.

      Pay drivers leaves a bitter taste in some peoples mouths due to nepotism, like they don’t deserve it simply because they got fast tracked or other excuses given.

      Money and talent are not mutually exclusive

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