Stoffel Vandoorne will leave McLaren at the end of the year, the team has announced.
“We’re immensely thankful for Stoffel’s dedication, hard work and commitment during his time at McLaren,” said McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. “He’s a talented racing driver with an incredible list of accolades in his junior career. We’re proud to have played a part in his break into Formula 1, from his role as test driver to his fantastic points-scoring debut in Bahrain in 2016.”
The news means McLaren will have a completely new driver line-up next year, as Carlos Sainz Jnr will take Fernando Alonso’s place at the team. Vandoorne has struggled alongside Alonso this year and has been out-qualified by his team mate in all 14 races so far.However Brown admitted Vandoorne hasn’t had a competitive car during his time at the team.
“It’s clear we haven’t provided Stoffel with the tools to show his true talent,” said Brown. But throughout our relationship he’s proved to be a fantastic team player.
“His work ethic is impressive, he has a great reputation within the team and we’ve really enjoyed working with him. Of course, we would have loved to achieve more success during our time together, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that he will always be a part of the McLaren family of grand prix drivers.
“For now, we look to the future and to the remaining grands prix in 2018, where I know both Stoffel and Fernando will be pushing hard to fight for as many points as possible before we close the curtain on this season.
“We wish Stoffel all the best in whatever direction he chooses to take next in his career, and we’ll be supporting him all the way. We will announce our full driver line-up for the 2019 season in due course.”
Vandoorne joined the team’s young driver programme five years ago. He made his debut for them as a substitute for Fernando Alonso in the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, and started his first full season at the team last year.
“I’m very grateful to McLaren for investing their faith in me over the past five years,” he said.
“While we haven’t achieved the success we’d all hoped for, I’ve really enjoyed the past two seasons racing for McLaren and I have a great relationship with everyone in the team.
“My time at McLaren has been a great chapter in my career and I’m thankful for the opportunity the team, Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa and Mansour Ojjeh have given me to gain valuable Formula 1 experience and develop as a driver. I intend to give it my all for the remaining seven races of this season, and will announce my plans for next season in due course.”
McLaren said last week it will announce its driver line-up for the 2019 F1 season by the end of this month.
View the current list of 2019 F1 drivers and teams
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
3rd September 2018, 11:02
Incredibly harsh, a real shame, and a total waste of his talent. Let’s hope somebody, anybody, picks him up, because if this is the end of his F1 career McLaren have blood on their hands.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
3rd September 2018, 11:14
@hahostolze Sorry but how is this of all things incredibly harsh? How many times was he last in a session this year alone? And no, the Mclaren is not (always) the slowest car on the grid as much as i enjoy watching them dent their ginormous egos.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
3rd September 2018, 11:51
@mrboerns Well for one, people keep using that out-qualified thing as a reason, but he actually has a better average quali deficit to Alonso than any driver since Massa in 2011, I believe. Which means he did better than Kimi, Massa post 2012, anyone. That tells more than his being out-qualified. Secondly, the car was a dog. His chassis had to be changed. All of these things can’t be held against him, yet are. His talent is undoubtable, perhaps the best junior record of any driver currently vying for an F1 seat. He’s a real racer too. At any other team, he’d have been put on the pedestal of an Ocon. But at McLaren, he’s dead meat.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd September 2018, 12:19
McLaren has announced Norris will take Vandoorne’s seat:
https://www.racefans.net/2018/09/03/norris-handed-f1-debut-with-mclaren-for-2019/
MacLeod (@macleod)
3rd September 2018, 13:04
Another talent which is going down the drain. Way to early to debute at McLaren he should start at een lower team like Torro Rosso less presure.
Kringle
4th September 2018, 0:09
Lower than Mclaren??
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
3rd September 2018, 16:34
@hahostolze I disagree. I mean Vandoorne was clearly promising and deserved his seat. But unlike Magnussen and Pérez, Vandoorne was given plenty opportunities to shine. I don’t know exactly why he didn’t as I thought he was a super star, but the reality is that he hasn’t. Worse of all he doesn’t seem better than he was last year. I still think Vandoorne can make a great career in F1, but I also understand the need for McLaren to make room for another potential super star Lando Norris. But hey… Feel free to hate on McLaren, it’s a popular and lazy thing to do in F1 these days
Anon
5th September 2018, 15:50
Maybe its clear why MAG did beat him in a lower raceclass – MAG is a much better driver but never was able to show it in F1 before Haas
JMDan (@danmar)
5th September 2018, 20:21
Many junior superstars flop in the big league.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
3rd September 2018, 11:16
And its also not like he was improving…
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd September 2018, 11:42
But neither is the team @mrboerns, and they seem so lacking in understanding of where the problems are, that it doesn’t seem quite surprising that Vandoorne can’t work it out reliably either. Of course, Alonso keeps driving the race of his career, if only the car would work, but that doesn’t help his team mate.
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
3rd September 2018, 11:48
I tend to agree. Clearly they didn’t get the best out of Vandoorne.
Aside from Hamilton, in recent times McLaren haven’t been the best at getting getting guys that are relatively early in their careers and developing them into fully fledged race drivers. The likes of Kovalainen, Perez, K-Mag come to mind.
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd September 2018, 12:00
Yeah, forgot about @tomcat173 (which shows what you mean, I think)
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd September 2018, 12:00
LOL, this is getting a bit stupid, apparently I even forgot to type Kovalainen’s name!
BMF66
3rd September 2018, 15:40
Blood on their hands lmao.
Ross
3rd September 2018, 11:09
Hopefully he finds his way into a Torro Rosso rather than Kvyat.
Steve Ellis
3rd September 2018, 15:23
Hopefully not
Ed
4th September 2018, 20:25
What? You want more Kvyat? lol
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
3rd September 2018, 11:09
Not surprising but disappointing all the same. Driving one of the worst cars on the grid, in the shadow of a racing legend, for a team without any direction or leadership. It was always going to be next to impossible for Stoffel to shine in that environment. I hope another team gives him a chance as he’s had some occasions of very decent performance this year.
Frankly he should be glad to be out of that toxic environment.
BMF66
3rd September 2018, 15:42
He’s slow. You’re forgetting that point.
javier javier (@j3d89)
3rd September 2018, 16:29
Totally agree…And then you put the fact that Alonso never been a good qualifier, he has an amazing racecraft and amazing abilities In a dog fight and Alonso sometimes even is 5 or 6 places ahead of him, can you imagine what a good qualifier like hamilton or vettel would do in that McLaren vs stoffel… ?
I think he is very mediocre driver, I rate Marcus even higher than him
Patrick (@paeschli)
3rd September 2018, 18:43
Lol
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 2:34
Have to agree with you, hamilton vs vandoorne would be even worse for the sole reason that the midfield is very tight, so a little qualifying advantage means the world.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
3rd September 2018, 11:12
Stoffel deserved better. He’s never had a McLaren that really worked for him, and that’s a terrible place to have to learn F1 from. Granted, his results haven’t been great, but I think they’ve shown the natural level of the car in the hands of a “standard” F1 driver (as opposed to a former world champion). He hasn’t done anything silly.
McLaren does have a bit of a driver logjam. I am expecting Lando Norris to be in the car next year, unless the paddock psuedopolitical polka gets going properly.
*reviews sentence*
I’ll get my ear defenders – it’ll probably be an opportunist selection from whoever loses out on the polka…
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
3rd September 2018, 11:18
I have a dream that one day people will stop claiming that FA magically drives slow cars (substantially) faster than they are capable of…
nase
3rd September 2018, 11:33
@mrboerns
That’s an odd dream. Honestly, I fail to see the problem with that. There’s obviously no magic involved, and Alonso clearly cannot break the laws of physics. That’s just a form of hyperbole. But in a way, this reflects his uncanny ability of extracting decent or even outstanding performances from ill-handling cars that are backmarker material in many other drivers’ hands.
My dream is pretty much the opposite of yours:
I retroactively wish people stopped claiming that Alonso is some sort of black magician who curses his team mates’ cars by asking his team to develop them in a direction that only he can cope with, while his respective team mate can’t.
Sounds ludicrous, is ludicrous, but it was the underlying worldview of many a defense of Räikkönen’s inexcusable 2014 performance.
mog
3rd September 2018, 11:51
What about contracted number 1 status? Wouldn’t be surprised if he has had that at McLaren, and i don’t think he would care if it ruined stoffs career as long as his own value was boosted
OOliver
3rd September 2018, 12:34
What Alonso could do was take advantage of every opportunity to maximise the potential of his car, including picking his battles, slip streaming faster cars. Alonso was constantly thinking in his car and evaluating the race situation.
In a way, that enables you too or perform the car.
George
3rd September 2018, 13:55
Also, don’t forget, Alonso is allowed to take risks that other drivers certainly will be punished for.
Had Stoffel raced in 2017 like Alonso (ending up 15 laps short on fuel) he would’ve been chewed and spit out at McLaren. Had he made as many contacts with other cars, with partial blame, he would’ve gotten a penalty point amount as large as an international phone number.
This weekends stupidity with Magnussen is a perfect example.
nase
3rd September 2018, 16:06
@ George
15 laps short on fuel? We’re reaching levels of nonsense that shouldn’t even be possible.
With a fuel flow limit of 100 kg/h and a maximum permitted fuel load of 105 kg, it takes 63 minutes to empty the fuel tank of an F1 car with a stuck throttle.
I had a look at the races from the 2017 season that might fit your description (Alonso retiring with roughly 15 laps to go), and I found the following races: British GP (DNF on lap 32/51; -19 laps) and Belgian GP (DNF on lap 25/44; -19 laps).
For his retirements to be due to excessive fuel consumption, Alonso would’ve needed to:
A) lap at 100% full throttle and an average lap time of 1:58.125 (British GP; i.e. some 25 seconds off the pace), or 2:31.2 (Belgian GP; i.e. some 35-40 seconds off the pace), or
B) start the race with no more than 85 (British GP) or 78 (Belgian GP) litres of fuel on board, and burn them away as quickly as theoretically possible (100% full throttle, using the maximum fuel flow at any given moment of the race, including mid-corner and during pit stops, safety cars, etc.) while posting the lap times he did, according to the lap charts (1:36 in Silverstone, 1:53 in Spa).
Sounds absolutely laughable? Well, that’s just the direct extrapolation of your version of the truth.
chris (@)
3rd September 2018, 18:46
@nase
They don’t have to fill the car full of 105kg of fuel. Lower fuel gives faster lap times, drivers just need to remember to go easy and use less fuel especially when they start with less than they need. Also there is no max limit of fuel they can put in the car, they just can’t use more than the specified amount during the race.
nase
3rd September 2018, 19:24
Dear @9chris9 , if you had read my comment in its entirety, you would’ve noticed that the latter part of it is based on the knowledge you’re trying to impart on me.
Joao (@johnmilk)
3rd September 2018, 12:35
There is no magic? Oh no!
nase
3rd September 2018, 15:23
@johnmilk
Except in your eyes, of course.
Joao (@johnmilk)
3rd September 2018, 15:51
you know me so well
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
3rd September 2018, 12:38
@mrboerns
I sent in a question to Gary Anderson on Autosport’s Ask Gary column a few years ago asking a similar question, about driver’s like Alonso driving faster than the car is capable of. Obviously his response was that was that it was impossible, but he did go on to say that Alonso was extremely good at consistently getting the maximum out of the car. This is what makes him stand out. There aren’t many drivers out that there can claim to have similar levels of consistency.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
3rd September 2018, 13:33
McLaren are 6th in the constructers entirely down to Alonso maximising opportunities, in front of the faster Sauber.
erikje
3rd September 2018, 14:25
No, they are 6th because of fault by Haas. They had a lot of luck in the first half.. but by now the car is showing his true potential.
And
at least Alonso started the fighting part
Shimks (@shimks)
3rd September 2018, 22:25
That’s what world class drivers do, @mrboerns.
Kribana (@krichelle)
3rd September 2018, 11:16
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
3rd September 2018, 11:18
A shame, really. I hope he can find a seat elsewhere, where he’ll be able to show his talent. Pairing with Alonso at McLaren is probably the worst nightmare you can imagine.
As for McLaren line-up in 2019 I doubt Norris will get in and I see either Perez or Ocon with Sainz.
krxx
3rd September 2018, 12:09
Ocon-Sainz would be nice
krxx
3rd September 2018, 12:13
Or would have been, seeing Norris confirmed now.
BMF66
3rd September 2018, 15:46
Shows how much you know.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
3rd September 2018, 17:13
Thanls for the constructive comment mate, anytime!
Gabriel (@rethla)
3rd September 2018, 11:20
The biggest dissapointment on the grid. He was expected to be an Verstsappen but hes more in line with the bottom of the field.
Ed
4th September 2018, 12:18
As is his car.
Michal (@michal2009b)
3rd September 2018, 11:20
Vandoorne didn’t perform to the high expectations, having Alonso as team-mate and poor car didn’t help as well. I don’t want to be too harsh on him, but there are many great drivers and unfortunately not many grid spots. There are pay-drivers as well. Wish there were two or three more teams to give others chances, providing they are not many seconds behind current slowest team.
Todfod (@todfod)
3rd September 2018, 11:23
I’m actually a little surprised. I thought Vandoorne would be in the team for at least a season because they could gauge Sainz while also maintaining a little bit of consistency during this transition period. I guess McLaren is taking the approach of starting over fresh completely and they rather have 2 fresh drivers right from the start.
If I had to guess.. I’m leaning towards a Sainz-Ocon pairing at McLaren, with Lando in a reserve driver role (if not at Toro Rosso).
Broekie
3rd September 2018, 12:03
Lando is Just announcec for 2019
Todfod (@todfod)
3rd September 2018, 12:05
I spoke 30 mins too soon… (facepalm)
BMF66
3rd September 2018, 15:49
Yup shows how much you know too. Probably better to keep your mouth shut. Now you just look like a fool.
erikje
3rd September 2018, 16:12
Being a brat will not help you here.
Robert (@gicu)
3rd September 2018, 18:40
Jesus, you’re so cool. I hope I can be as cool as you someday. At least the “I told you so” people actually did something before dragging others down. What’s your merit, besides being cool, you cucumber, you.
ColdFly (@)
3rd September 2018, 19:14
nobody claimed to ‘know’, rather ‘guess’ or ‘doubt’.
I hope you heed your own recommendation, @BMF66!
Dan
3rd September 2018, 22:54
@BMF66
A riddle for you:
Why would any human with a SHRED of decency make such a remark?
Answer: They wouldn’t.
Keith,
Please remove his remarks and ban him!
This is nothing more than a personal attack and has no place here.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 2:40
Agree!
Mashiat (@mashiat)
3rd September 2018, 11:24
I don’t necessarily understand this sympathy for Vandoorne “for not providing him with a competitive car”. How many drivers in F1 started with a competitive car? Alonso started with Minardi, Raikkonen started with Sauber, Ricciardo, Vettel and Verstappen all started with Toro-Rosso, even Leclerc is currently in a Sauber that is probably a worse car than the McLaren for most races this season, yet we don’t see him complaining about “not being able to show my talent because I don’t drive a Ferrari”. And to be fair, the 2017 McLaren may have been slow, but it was a very drivable car, and one that should make life easier for him. Thing is, Vandoorne simply hasn’t been good enough. Alonso is a great driver, but to only outqualify him 3 times in 33 races? And of those three, twice can be attributed to Alonso taking a grid penalty for the race anyway, so he didn’t participate fully in Q2, with Malaysia being the only weekend where Vandoorne has done well. It says something when you have a worse record than Felipe Massa, and at the age of 26 as well, not like he’s 19.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
3rd September 2018, 11:36
Thats what you get for taking lessons from your experienced Teammate- of course he performed admirably, best race ever, if only the car…..
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd September 2018, 11:39
@mashiat My sympathy comes from a combination of him having had great junior series results, only to have to then wait until he’s 26 to get into a McLaren, where they first had got rid of Magnussen after 2015, who had been a McLaren promise the year before when they got rid of Perez, but only after Button had had enough in during 2016. McLaren also got rid of Nick de Vries (who’s doing well now in F2) – I detect a pattern of not really being able to give their ‘young promise’ a good shot, who then manage quite well in other teams (okay Magnussen needed a bit with that Lotus/Renault, but Perez was right back to his pre McL shape). So, I expect that given a chance, he might well prove to be an adequate driver after all.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
3rd September 2018, 11:58
@bosyber Nelson Piquet Jr. did also have a great junior career. In the 2006 GP2 season, he got more poles than the current holder of the record for most poles in F1 history, and narrowly lost out to him in the championship (albeit in his second season of GP2, but even still it was a commendable achievement). And yet, he was one of the worst drivers I saw in my time in F1. Could barely go a weekend without crashing, and couldn’t get near Alonso to save his life.
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd September 2018, 12:05
Which is why I said ‘combination’ @mashiat – also, one might even say that him winning the first Formula-e season proves he wasn’t all that bad as a driver (leaving his, and his WDC father’s morals aside), but that in the toxic environs of Briatore/Alonso Renault, his problems were magnified (GRO also only managed to get solid after they weren’t at the team, and apparently still has problems – not saying it’s due to them, but wasn’t helped, I think).
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd September 2018, 13:56
@mashiat I think Piquet Jr was/is way better than he was able to show in F1.
I don’t think Renault alongside Alonso who was clear #1 was the best environment for him & I also don’t feel he got as much support from the team as he probably needed due to there focus been 100% on Alonso. I also think those cars were tricky to drive & that Alonso’s experience (And fact he’s probably the best driver on the grid) helped him drive around that while Piquet having less experience found it harder to figure out how to get around the cars problems.
I said at the time & still believe now that had Piquet been in another team a bit further down the grid that were giving him more support with a less imposing team mate I think he’d have done a lot better & stayed around a lot longer.
Sometimes you see a driver enter a team & just not gel with that team for whatever reason & therefore not be able to show the best of there abilities. We saw it with both Perez & Magnussen at McLaren as well as Montoya who never looked as good at McLaren as he had at Williams despite in 2005 probably having a better car than he’d ever had at Williams. Going back further look at Frentzen, He looked like a likely star of the future at Sauber in 94-96 yet struggled at Williams in 97/98 yet in ’99 at Jordan in an environment he felt more comfortable in he once again looked like the future star everyone thought he was while at Sauber.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 2:46
Very true about montoya and frentzen, the 2005 mclaren was a rocket and he was nowhere compared to raikkonen, yet he was fighting WITH raikkonen in 2003 with a williams very similar to that mclaren, and frentzen couldn’t perform only the year he was given the best car, 1997, oddly enough.
rich (@rich)
3rd September 2018, 11:40
Pedant mode on: Dan started his career with HRT and Seb with BMW Sauber.. Pedant mode off: ;)
Mashiat (@mashiat)
3rd September 2018, 11:50
@rich I had forgotten about those, but Vettel did only do 1 race for BMW, and Ricciardo started with HRT, which actually makes my argument slightly stronger.
rich (@rich)
3rd September 2018, 12:09
@mashiat — yea I know I was just being very pedantic! I agree your point is valid because Stoffel has had his chance and has not impressed .. for me the only memorable drive of his was his first one standing in for Fernando in Bahrain 2016 …
Mashiat (@mashiat)
3rd September 2018, 12:56
@rich Malaysia 2017 was also one, and I think it was better than Bahrain. He had the measure of Alonso throughout the weekend and finished 6 places ahead on merit. But if McLaren wanted someone who could put in 2-3 great performances a year, they might as well have gotten Maldonado in.
TimTheBoss (@hogee)
3rd September 2018, 11:41
I disagree: he signed up for McLaren five years ago. The great McLaren! Not Minardi, Sauber or any other team that would never be expected to make major leaps forward. In hindsight, which team would you have preferred to start your career?
Mashiat (@mashiat)
3rd September 2018, 11:52
@hogee I don’t quite get your point. True, Vandoorne probably expected more from McLaren than any of those guys did from their respective teams, but does that excuse his performances? It was the same for Perez and Magnussen, but those guys did do a better job than Vandoorne.
Ed
4th September 2018, 12:22
They also did a better job than alonso is doing. So what!?
Patrick (@paeschli)
3rd September 2018, 18:45
Well no one of the drivers you mentioned had to start next to a two
Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
3rd September 2018, 11:25
He’s not been as good as anticipated but he deserves another chance much like K-Mag
just.daz (@nemo87)
3rd September 2018, 11:28
Norris confirmed?
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2018, 11:30
@nemo87 No one’s been confirmed yet.
just.daz (@nemo87)
3rd September 2018, 12:03
Norris has just been confirmed haha.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2018, 11:31
Unsurprising.
Johan Tolemans
3rd September 2018, 11:33
Great for him and totally in line with the series of bad decisions by McLaren these past seasons.
I am sure ALO will get a bloody nose in US, McLaren will remain last row for at least two more seasons, if not many more, and Stoffel will have a fine career elsewhere.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
3rd September 2018, 11:33
Stoffel wont be the first that’s come from F2 with high expectations and not lived up to them and certainly won’t be the last but I can’t help getting the feeling that he’s driving a “spare parts” car this year and has been royally shafted by Mclaren.
The team is in complete disarray, their senior management seem to have “other things” on their plate and can’t even be bothered focusing on their F1 team.
I hope he gets a chance at another team for at least one more season – I don’t think we’ve been given an opportunity to see what he’s capable of.
Hopefully Ocon won’t be forced to join such a toxic mess.
Wrighty88 (@wrighty88)
3rd September 2018, 11:34
I hope this means Ocon gets a drive, even if it means he has to leave the Mercedes family. It’s harsh on Stoff though, I hope he gets another run at things one day because he’s not the worst driver out there. Alonso has dominated many drivers in his career…one who even won the WDC.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 2:58
Yes, I think qualifying battle and stuff was as bad as vandoorne’s vs raikkonen.
TimTheBoss (@hogee)
3rd September 2018, 11:44
Must will read into this that McLaren is sacking Stoffel, but the press text is issued by both parties together. For all we know, Stoffel has been proactive and is pursuing other plans. I wouldn’t blame him for that.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
3rd September 2018, 11:54
@hogee Indeed, the tone is a bit unusual, like a common deal. I hope it means seeing Vandoorne in another car next year but I’m not sure about that.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd September 2018, 14:51
I have to agree with the both of you there @hogee, @spoutnik. Didn’t McLaren mention that they were still looking at 4 ppl only a day or so ago and expecting to announce who will be in the car only later (october was mentioned I think?).
From that, and from the tone of the announcement, it would make sense that Vandoorne asked them to free him up to sign elsewhere. On the other hand, if negotiations are still ongoing elsewhere it would have been more beneficial for Stoffel to keep up the facade of having a shot at McLaren too.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
3rd September 2018, 17:18
@bascb for what it’s worth the belgian commentator who knows Stoffel well, without being in the loop said that Stoffel looks serene. Future probably already settled but in F1? Who knows.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd September 2018, 21:14
I think that Stoffel certainly deserves to have a long career ahead of him @spoutnik!
wobs
3rd September 2018, 11:52
This is fair from Mclaren, 100% loss rate in quali against his team mate, coming last recently, Alonso 44 points to 8, pretty much every driver has had some some nice moves at some point during the year, I don’t remember SVD having any. He is a nice guy, but F1 is cut throat, he simply has not been close to good enough. One or two more decent Sauber weekends and Ericsson could beat him in the wdc, even Stroll could catch him.
Here’s hoping Ocon gets the seat.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd September 2018, 11:55
McLaren has become a real meat mincer. Three very talented youngsters have been put in the sidelines in no time, first Perez, then Magnussen and now poor Stoffel. I’d think twice if I were Lando Norris! Poor Carlos is going to end the same way if the team doesn’t react quickly which doesn’t seem very likely
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
3rd September 2018, 12:33
I always forget about the Perez episode. Mclaren in a nutshell. the “no more development potential” 2012 car (mp4/whatshamacallit) is probably still faster than anything they have come up with since.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 3:06
I looked it up cause I was interested, I don’t think you meant it literally due to the huge progress in the last 2 years in the lap times, however hamilton got pole in 2012 in 1.24.0, alonso here managed 1.21.85 for 13th place.
If we look at the toro rosso for example, a backmarker team who is still here today, ricciardo managed a 1.25.3 back then and this time gasly 1.21.3, so as you can see, while literally obviously this horrible mclaren is faster than the 2012 mclaren class of the field, they only improved 2.15 sec so far and toro rosso improved 4 sec, that’s really bad!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 3:06
@mrboerns
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
3rd September 2018, 12:14
Pretty furry for Vandoorne, yes we all expected more from him with his junior career record but to be thrown out in the knowledge that all the issues he’s had, the general issues with the car and all makes me quite sad for him.
Hoping that Fred Vasseur has already signed him up for Sauber!
x303 (@x303)
3rd September 2018, 12:48
I wish too but I wouldn’t hold my breath on it. Sauber being Ferrari-B, they would probablye hire Giovinazzy instead.
Selbbin (@selbbin)
3rd September 2018, 12:43
I’m very disappointed by this. It’s becoming a long list…
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
3rd September 2018, 12:43
I wonder what impression we’d have of Ocon or Leclerc if they had been in that McLaren with Alonso as their teammate.
Philip (@philipgb)
3rd September 2018, 12:44
Poor kid. Hard to tell if he just isn’t that special or if Alonso is just so good at driving around a poor car it’s showing him up.
I think McLaren would have been better keeping him as a benchmark for Sainz and giving him a few races next season to turn things around before dropping him.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 3:10
I think hamilton showed that alonso is great but when paired with a really strong driver he’s human.
So I think that looks bad for vandoorne but also equally bad for raikkonen in 2014.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
3rd September 2018, 12:45
Feel bad for Vandoorne. The guy’s not forgotten how to drive? He certainly deserves a spot in F1. Kinda hoping Toro Rosso, Williams or Sauber pick him up so he can have ‘restart’ like Perez & Magnussen got after their treatment at McLaren. That team just seems to have no idea what to do with some drivers, or focus their efforts on one and leave the other with poor support – their record for disposing of ‘promising talent’ is worrying. Either way – their car issues are far more pressing than their drivers so I can’t help but think consistency would help them more than an ‘all-change’ idea.
Daves
3rd September 2018, 13:07
At first, I thought was a harsh move but Stoffel and his fans should be happy.
He will end up at Torro Rosso, which is far and away a better drive than McLaren, at least at this time. Marko may have wanted Stoffel and not Norris all the while.
Stoffel will get a chance to prove himself a very good driver and I think he will.
In the end it will probably save his career and possibly get him a better seat if he performs to his capabilities.
Norris, on the other hand, will be under pressure to live up to his highly regarded image, which is questionable to say the least. I think his chances of failing at McLaren are higher than Stoffel’s if he goes to Torro..
Having said that, Zak had to give Norris a chance as he is a Brit and McLaren fans would be incensed if RBR signed him and he became the next HAM. The same fans that are screaming at Zak for letting Stoffel go would be doing the same if RBR signed Morris. Zak can’t win in this case.
So congratulations Stoffel, I hope you flourish at Torro Rosso. I suspect you will be passing papaya colored cars a lot next year.
GtisBetter (@)
3rd September 2018, 13:40
I think this is the result of the shift in talent development. In the old days, people drove for bad teams, But it was a step to a better team.
Now every team has his own junior talent program and it’s pretty much impossible to get a good drive if you are not selected. And then you are easily discarded for the next talent, cause people jump straight into F1 from a year F2. Tough times to be a young driver with F1 ambition.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd September 2018, 13:43
I hope he gets a shot elsewhere because I fully believe that Vandoorne is better than he’s been able to show the last 2 years at McLaren.
People were writing off Perez & Magnussen after they ‘failed’ at McLaren yet both have gone on to do better post McLaren & I Hope/Expect Stoffel to do the same if given a chance elsewhere.
Luke S (@joeypropane)
3rd September 2018, 13:59
The difference with Perez is that he already proved himself in the Formula while driving for Sauber, and it was hardly as if Button was snatching podiums while Perez was trundling around in the mid-field, he was actually pretty close most weekends.
K-Mag came off a little worse VS Button, but it was his 1st season in the sport, Vandoorne has shown very little improvement from last season to now, if anything going backwards since the summer break. How many seasons can you give someone before moving on??
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
3rd September 2018, 14:27
@joeypropane @stefmeister
Is it possible that Vandoorne was such a bad driver? Why would McLaren give him a drive? Surprisingly he drove his best when he filled in once.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd September 2018, 15:37
@joeypropane I think something to take into consideration this year is that according to Alonso the data has been showing that there’s some sort of problem with Vandoorne’s car that’s causing it to produce less downforce than Alonso’s & that no matter what parts they change it doesn’t seem to fix it.
It seems like it’s a very clear thing they can see on the data but they can’t figure out what’s causing it.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-vandoorne-downforce-investigation-mclaren-1062372/3145306/?nrt=54
Luke S (@joeypropane)
3rd September 2018, 13:51
Very surprised so many are so upset about this – Fact of the matter is that he never looked fully comfortable with the Formula and was not only consistently slower than his team mate, but also slower than drivers that don’t have the same junior record and are also in cars that are every bit as finicky as the McLaren (qualifying behind the likes of Stroll and Sirotkin in that dog of a Williams 3/4 of the last race weekends is awful whichever way you cut it).
It’s the same as Hartley, people seem quick to defend him when all he has done is show he isn’t even mid-field F1 material. But then again, I always felt it was the same with Paul DiResta, but at least he could claim to be reliably and consistently “ok”….
George
3rd September 2018, 14:13
Qualifying behind Stroll and Sirotkin makes me believe Williams is improving their car, while McLaren can’t be bothered.
Even Alonso, with all his experience was just in front of the Williams’. And the gap to Alo is what it is: about .3s on average. Do you claim the same from Ricciardo or Bottas?
Luke S (@joeypropane)
3rd September 2018, 14:45
Problem Vandoorne has is that he is like a Button turned up to 11 – when everything works for him, he absolutely demolishes his competition (as that junior series record shows), but he apparently has zero capability to drive a car that isn’t working for him – there just doesn’t seem to be any of that hustle, heart and will to get the results that the likes of Lewis, Fernando, Seb and the RBR pair have that allow them to transcend their machinery.
But I thought that he was a personality black hole the first time I saw him being interviewed, so maybe that’s just his personality, rather than a measure of his talent…
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 3:13
Hamilton CANNOT be in that list: whenever the car isn’t to his liking he has an off weekend, look at these recent examples: china and canada 2018, russia and monaco 2017.
Ruben
3rd September 2018, 14:04
His junior records don’t lie. He might be another Hartley. Great sportscar record but just misses that edge to be a F1 driver. A guy like Stoffel won’t be sitting at home for too long though. There might be a lot of LMP teams willing to sign him.
Perez and Magnussen have done well for themselves after leaving Mclaren. Maybe Stoffel can go to Toro Rosso and get his career back on track.
darran
3rd September 2018, 15:43
Hope he finds a drive in F1 next year to show off the talent he displayed in gp2 He needed out of that mess.
Girts (@girts)
3rd September 2018, 15:51
Yet the beginning of Vandoorne’s F1 career looked so promising. He got 25% of the votes in the RF DotW poll after his debut race, the 2016 Bahrain GP – only Grosjean, who finished 5th in a Haas, got more appreciation.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th September 2018, 3:15
I think he was even looking good at some point around malaysia 2017, when he beat alonso on merit that qualifying and race and was scoring consistently in a very bad mclaren.
At this point mclaren is getting so much worse than early 2018 that it’s hard to say this is a better car though.
phil9079 (@phil9079)
3rd September 2018, 17:45
Corrupted bussiness! Money above experience, and this is where F1 and FIA will never get great drivers! I’ll NEVER watch again!
Danny
3rd September 2018, 23:04
Yep, welcome to the bureaucratic cut throat world of F1, where money, not talent, often enables the under performers to get a seat. Farce!
Bleu (@bleu)
3rd September 2018, 19:15
Since he struggled so much in F1, I have wondered if he was actually just more developed driver early on. It’s also notable that of the current 20 drivers in F1, Stoffel made his debut as 2nd oldest – trailing only Brendon Hartley. Added to that he became regular driver almost a year after his debut.
John H (@john-h)
3rd September 2018, 22:45
You’d expect him to outqualify Alonso at least once. Being beaten 14/14 times in not even your rookie season. Sorry to sound harsh, but that’s a poor record.
Danny
3rd September 2018, 23:09
Well, ALO out qualified Kimi 16-3 so he’s not the first to fail in that regard.
http://grandprixrankings.com/compare/2014-f1/alonso-versus-raikkonen/
Ed
4th September 2018, 12:25
Mclare is an awful place to be at the moment.
This could be better for him than it looks.
Ed
4th September 2018, 20:29
Signed with Mclaren when they still were somewhere into the top / midfield.
Drives two of the worst cars ever designed by the team.
What a waste.
If the guy isn’t already established, start a F1 career alongside Alonso is suicide. The team will give him all the best resources and parts, the other one will get the remains, underperform and be sacked sooner than later, just like Nelson Piquet Jr ten years ago, and now Vandoorne.
Huge career mismanagement on both parts.
JMDan (@danmar)
5th September 2018, 20:24
Not surprising I suppose. If you can’t out-qualify your teammate at least once then clearly something other than the car is not working.