2018 Report Card: Alonso & Vandoorne

In fact, it would be fair to say that without Fernando they might have finished even further down the order as the gutsy Spaniard racked up 50 of the team's total of 62 points, while Stoffel's inexplicable inability to beat his teammate in qualifying and most Sunday afternoons will always remain a mystery.

Here are the 2018 Report Cards for two drivers who will not be on the grid next year, one who leaves a huge legacy in despite his final four years of torment with McLaren and the other who joins the list of F1's failures thanks to the failings of the team.

BS: What happened to Amelia Earhart? Who killed JFK? Is Bernie Ecclestone immortal? All great mysteries, and now we can add Stoffel Vandoorne's F1 career to that list. After all his success in the junior formulae, much was expected of the Belgian, but come the end of 2018, the only thing he'd succeeded at was becoming Fernando Alonso's punching bag. Maybe the team's struggles and the pressure of matching up with Alonso affected him more than he let on, but in losing 21-0 to his teammate in qualifying, and going 14 straight races without scoring, he simply didn't look like the same driver McLaren once moved mountains to make room for. Maybe the talent is still there somewhere, but for a team that values performance as much as potential, McLaren seem to have made the right choice to let him go.

PV: Yet another case of good guys finish last. In retrospect, Stoffel never got a decent chance to crack it in Formula 1 with a horrible race car to contend with, as well as a ruthlessly effective teammate. Toiling at the back of the F1 pack out of the spotlight, rule number one is to beat your teammate, something the likeable (and highly pedigreed) Belgian was incapable of doing. That qualifying record is damning enough to warrant the boot from any team, but I am of the crowd that is still somewhat bemused, confused, disbelieving etc etc on why exactly Stoffel was so bad so often.

Rating: 2/10

BS: Perhaps the hardest driver to grade on the grid, how do you assess another lost year for Fernando Alonso? Instead of competing for one more championship, the Spaniard spent his final F1 season saddled with a middling car that got worse as the season went on, and that meant his talents remained very much underutilised. Still, it's a serious credit to him that he managed to best both a Haas (Romain Grosjean) and Force India (Esteban Ocon) driver in the championship – not to mention absolutely smoking teammate Vandoorne in the H2H – but P11 will do nothing to fill his trophy case. He deserved more.

PV: Ten-out-of-ten to Fernando for his commitment and dedication to the beleaguered McLaren F1 programme for so long. Facts are no matter how good you are in F1, without the right car you are fucked - and that sums up his last four years at Woking. It was hard to see a guy of Fernando's talents and stature slugging it out where he does not belong. Lesser men would have jumped into the lifeboat a long time ago, but he persisted and that has to be applauded. But as he leaves F1 it has to be said, in a top car Fernando would still be a contender, he proved that yet again this past season driving a dud of a car.

Rating: 8/10

Note: Ben Stevens (BS) and Paul Velasco (PV)

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/04/03/alonso-mclaren-will-battle-the-big-three-soon/