Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has ruled out Stoffel Vandoorne for a seat at Toro Rosso next season with a harsh assessment of the current McLaren driver.
The Belgian will be dropped by the Woking-based squad at the end of the year after two difficult seasons that have seen him fail to match the expectations he had raised after a successful junior career.
Indeed, Vandoorne is still yet to out-qualify teammate Fernando Alonso this season and that, along with a lack of results, has led Marko to make a simple conclusion.
“We will not take Stoffel, I think he’s just not fast enough for F1!” he told Belgium’s RTBF broadcaster.
That rebuke came after McLaren CEO Zak Brown plugged for Toro Rosso to take him on for 2019, instead, it will be Daniil Kvyat and possibly Pascal Wehrlein that will line-up for the junior Red Bull team.
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An outlet does appear to be on the table for Vandoorne, however, with rumours linking the 26-year-old to a seat with HWA in Formula E, a team that is essentially joining the grid ahead of Mercedes’ arrival as a manufacturer in Season 6.
“I have always liked Stoffel, a brilliant driver in the junior categories,” said Toto Wolff.
“We must now try to understand why it did not work for him in F1, but maybe there could be some news about him soon.
“I think his character and speed would work very well at Mercedes, but for now we will have to see.”