Vandoorne: My chances to be in F1 next year are very slim

Thursday, 13 September 2018 at 15:36

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Not long ago Stoffel Vandoorne was the hottest property on the fringes of Formula 1, after a mega junior career the Belgian was ready to step up to the top flight with McLaren at the start of last year, but he simply did not live up to expectations and is unlikely to be on the grid next year.

Vandoorne's story has been well covered, the tale of being in the wrong place at the wrong time springs to mind in his case. This coupled with inexperience, bad form, bad luck and sheer inferiority relative to teammate Alonso sunk the likeable Belgian.

Replaced at McLaren by a teenager, Vandoorne acknowledged his plight when talking to journalists ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, “The driver market has been a bit strange for a couple of weeks now, seats are closing down almost every day.”

“My chances to be on the F1 grid next year are very slim. But until everything is fixed I guess you’ve got to keep talking, keep trying and give everything for it. That’s all I can do for the moment.”

“There’s been a lot of talks and not only in F1, at the moment, we’re exploring some different series as well, which hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will know something more about."

“Until the F1 door closes I’ve got to keep all of the options open. There are some interesting projects that could become reality next year but at the moment nothing is done and I’m still free agent.”

His current McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso is also departing F1 at the end of the season with Indycar a very real possibility for the Spaniard.

When asked about Indycar as an option, Vandoorne said, “The Indy 500 is a special occasion, let’s say. After what happened with Robert [Wickens] it’s sometimes not always that appealing.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest events in the world and I think to have an opportunity to compete in that and maybe fight for victory is probably something very special. But there are a lot of risks involved as well. You have to be able to prepared to take those.”

But Vandoorne made clear his priority, "To be involved with a Formula 1 team would be good. The focus at the moment is to find a race seat, whether that would be in Formula 1 or out of Formula 1 I don’t know yet."

"To have a main programme and then if there is no opportunity as a race driver, I think it would be good to be still involved in some way with a Formula 1 team," explained Vandoorne.