Brown: If I was Toro Rosso I’d take Stoffel in a heartbeat

Vandoorne has endured a miserable two seasons with McLaren, going from the 'next big thing' to another Woking outcast.

Ironically Brown, the man who wielded the axe, has become Vandoorne's lobbyist in chief, telling reporters, “I definitely think he’s a Formula 1 calibre driver and if I was Toro Rosso, who appear to have two open seats, I’d put Stoffel in a heartbeat."

"I think we’ve had a very poor race car for two years. Someone like Fernando can adapt quicker, he’s got so much experience. Stoffel was very close to Fernando — a lot closer than some other teammates as Fernando commented.”

“Stoffel is an outstanding race car driver. Ultimately we look to the future and feel Lando’s a future star. I think in a different environment Stoffel may excel more, and with a better race car. If I look at his debut races, beside Bahrain which was an impressive debut, but the 2017 season he was going to racetracks and losing practice sessions … so I’m not sure he ever really got the opportunity to get into a groove.”

But the stats do not lie and facts are that Vandoorne has been thoroughly outperformed by teammate Fernando Alonso, trounced in qualifying by the Spaniard for the 19th consecutive race, the harsh reality is he simply did not cut it at the highest level when he got his chance.

Brown conceded, “When you have a teammate like Fernando who can draw on that experience and I think is recognized as one of the best guys out there, Fernando’s going to adapt to that situation quicker.”

While Norris is groomed for the team's future, Vandoorne is clearly not part of the script, but Brown wants to assist the 26-year-old, "Anything we can do to help Stoffel, we would help him in a heartbeat. We consider him family — he’s been outstanding to work with."

"Hopefully, he lands in Formula 1, that’s where I think he deserves to be, but we have some other racing activities that you guys know we are reviewing and I wouldn’t hesitate to keep Stoffel in the McLaren family if there was a seat available and he had a desire to race in it.”

Finally, he was asked if Vandoorne and Alonso could team up to spearhead a McLaren Indycar programme, to which he replied, “Ah! Highly unlikely.”