Stoffel Vandoorne, Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 2018

Vandoorne doubts he’ll ever have a tougher team mate than Alonso

2018 Italian Grand Prix

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Stoffel Vandoorne defended his performance compared to Fernando Alonso at McLaren and described his team mate as the hardest benchmark he’s likely to face in Formula 1.

Although Vandoorne has been beaten by Alonso in every qualifying session so far this year, he says the gap between them in terms of lap time is encouraging.

“Maybe I haven’t actually been ahead of Fernando in qualifying but I’ve been very close,” said Vandoorne. “Which maybe is more important than maybe just having one lucky shot and being in front.

“I prefer to be within a certain amount of lap time, let’s say. From that point [I] still need to make a small step forward.”

Vandoorne has been 0.35s slower than Alonso on average in qualifying so far this year. This is less than Daniel Ricciardo’s average deficit to Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen’s average deficit to Sebastian Vettel.

The problem McLaren has experienced with its car, and the need to sacrifice practice sessions to run a testing programme, has made life more difficult for Vandoorne, he says.

“With all the problems we’ve been running through I think Fernando’s probably the most used to driving in complicated situations,” he told media at Monza.

“I’ve had a very good benchmark and I think some of you guys have showed the statistic that I’ve been extremely close to Fernando. I think the conditions are better and everything runs a bit more smooth then there is a lot more potential to be much closer.”

Vandoorne’s place at the team is yet to be confirmed. McLaren has already signed Carlos Sainz Jnr for the 2019 F1 season and said it will reveal the identity of his team mate within the next month.

However Vandoorne doubts he could be measured against a higher standard than the one he faces at the moment.

“I’m racing with Fernando now in the team so that is the benchmark I have,” he said. “And it’s probably the highest benchmark I will ever have.”

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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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16 comments on “Vandoorne doubts he’ll ever have a tougher team mate than Alonso”

  1. Is this because Alonso will be his only teammate in f1?

    1. My thoughts exactly.

    2. People seem to forget he outqualified and outscored Button in Bahrain 2016, when he was replacing the injured Alonso. In a car he had never driven before.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        31st August 2018, 20:00

        And Button often out qualified Alonso, who has out qualified Vandoorne 12 out of 12 times this year! One qualifying session and a race button couldn’t take part in isn’t much of a comparison. This year, Vandoorne has not looked good at all. Not that he makes many big mistakes, but i never seen special performances from him.

    3. Savage

    4. Sorry to disappoint you chief. He will get a seat next year though hopefully not McLaren.

  2. He deserves another chance next year based on his performances so far.
    On another note, how has Max outqualified Daniel with an average deficit of 0.63, looking back the gap has always been far closer than that. Only at silverstone was it more than 2 tenths.

  3. “Maybe I haven’t actually been ahead of Fernando in qualifying but I’ve been very close,”

    Doesn’t this just mean: “I haven’t been ahead of Fernando in qualifying…”
    His defence is valid but I nearly stopped reading this far because of his wishy-washy intro.

  4. If we take out the (minimum) two races where he wasn’t driving the same car as Alonso, the gap is even smaller.

    Really hope Vandoorne gets at least one more year to prove himself.

    1. Actually, Alo and Stoffel had 5 races with near identical hardware, and in at least one of those Stoffel gave Alo a tow on the straight during Qual. This results in a small time gap between the drivers, but often a lot of spots on the grid.
      Starting 12th, chances are way better you’ll end up in the points, compared to starting P16.
      On at least one race, Alo had a new front wing and a spare new spec front wing, while Stoffel had to use the old spec because McLaren only had 2 available. That should give you an idea about their priorities and choices.

  5. Johan Tolemans
    31st August 2018, 13:19

    The way F1 works, is that he is Belgian. A small country not that many consumers and virtually no big companies to back him. No money, no seat.
    Even if with second rate material of a third rate car in a by now fourth rate team he could somehow outperform Alonso – I doubt it would make much difference. It is a mystery how he got so far to begin with. But that won’t happen again. F1 is for the Strolls and Norris’ of this world.

    1. Just wondering how many F1 drivers have Belgian DNA coursing through their veins???

  6. Have to agree with him.

    Aside from the fact that his junior record speaks for itself, three tenths off Alonso really is not the end of the world, especially in a woeful McLaren where a lack of experience gets magnified. Massa was something like 7 tenths slower on average from what I remember, Raikkonen may have done a tad better but was still comprehensively trounced. Not sure about Button, but I would not be surprised if he were slower than Alonso by a similar margin to Vandoorne.

    Any data on Alonso’s qualifying gaps to his team mates since the ban on refuelling @keithcollantine? Would be highly insightful.

      1. Thanks Batemans.
        I find Mark Hughes to be one of the few in the Brit media who actually present facts and is pretty much unbiased towards Alonso.
        What an incredible record, especially trouncing Felipe and Kimi.
        I like that he is leaving F1 and coming to the US – F1’s loss is our gain.
        I watched F1 for 25 years – the last 4 have been beyond frustrating.
        When he leaves it will be “bye bye” to F1 for me.
        A bureaucratic cut throat circus to say the least.

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