McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has praised Stoffel Vandoorne's improvement during his first full season in Formula 1, after claiming the Belgian was "exposed" alongside Fernando Alonso at the beginning of the year.

This year, the former GP2 champion finally got his much-anticipated opportunity with the British team, replacing Jenson Button and was expected to be one of the men to watch during the season, particularly after scoring points on debut last year in Bahrain. 

Instead, it has been a slow-burner for the 25-year-old as Honda's ongoing engine problems led to a lack of competitiveness and Boullier admits the spotlight of being next to one of F1's biggest names also threw Vandoorne it right at the deep end.

"He has been very exposed because of his teammate, Fernando, a double world champion," the Frenchman said. "Any young driver who joined F1 in the last five years had a period, the same as Stoffel, to adapt to F1.

"If you're in a [smaller] team, it's more quiet. But if you're at McLaren, next to Fernando Alonso, obviously it's more difficult."

Eventually, Vandoorne scored his first points of the year in Hungary and two consecutive seventh-place results in Singapore and Sepang have actually seen him move ahead of Alonso in the Drivers' Championship.

More broadly, his performances have been more on a level with his Spanish teammate, something Boullier put down to "hard work, trust, confidence and talent".

"Since June now, the approach we had with Stoffel, and his approach with us, has been a bit different," he explained. "We've worked on his understanding of F1 and obviously tyres.

"Now he has gained the confidence he has needed to be able to extract the best out of his car, this is why you're seeing the Stoffel we are expecting to unlock."

Offering his own view, Vandoorne admits it has taken him time to learn and adapt to his new surroundings despite a long prior partnership with McLaren.

"The way I am working with the team, working with engineers has developed a lot," he said. "Having had the opportunity to have a bit more track time enabled us to see what I needed from the car, to understand what I needed from the car.

"I am just confident that things will work and things will go and that is a nice feeling to feel comfortable and do with the car what you want to do."