A SEASON IN REVIEW XIII - STOFFEL VANDOORNE
He's still got plenty to learn, but as far as rookie seasons go, this was solid.
Best Moments of the Season
His back-to-back 7th place finishes in Singapore and Malaysia were highly commendable in a McLaren, particularly the Malaysia drive where he was able to finish ahead of both Williams drivers and the Force India of Esteban Ocon.
Worst Moments of the Season
Consistently starting towards the back due to the amount of grid penalties he received must've been highly frustrating on his part, especially when you consider overtaking with that Honda engine was nearly impossible. On a personal level, he struggled to get to grips with Monaco as he disappointingly crashed in both qualifying and the race.
Target for Next Season
Theoretically, he should be able to achieve a much improved points total
Verdict
Entering the sport as a rookie is always a difficult challenge, I'm sure many drivers will testify to that, but it's made even harder when the person you have as a teammate is Fernando Alonso. That's not to say Alonso is a bad teammate, in fact he seemed very supportive all year, but all of Vandoorne's results were naturally going to be compared to his. To tell the truth, Vandoorne held his own, but a bigger challenge will arise next year when they both have more competitive cars.
On the whole, Vandoorne had a good season, he didn't make too many mistakes but at the same time didn't do too much to 'wow' me either, although that's partly down to what he was driving. He definitely earned a second season in the car and we'll see how he does, with Lando Norris now acting as McLaren's reserve driver, he'll need to be on his toes.
RATING: 7.5/10
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Comments (2)
I think he did as good as could be expected given the engine he had. He had a few mistake but definitely less than someone like Stroll (that may be an unfair comparison to vandoorne considering, but they’re both rookies nonetheless.) Towards the end of the season he had some fairly respectable performances with what he had. And from all accounts he fits the bill (better than KMag at McLaren at least.) It will surely be interesting to see what he does with the new engine; especially compared to what Alo is able to do.
Bad judgement in pitstoptiming in some races resulted in less chances to score more points.