Stoffel Vandoorne believes he was never “traumatised” by the problems which impacted McLaren and Honda even if they were far from helpful in enabling him to settle in his first full Formula 1 season.
The Belgian was tipped to be one of the breakout stars of 2017 after finally getting his opportunity with the British team but he would struggle to meet those expectations as a torrid pre-season and first third of the year due to power unit problems left the 25-year-old unable to find his bearings.
Eventually, he would get going and has actually only retired twice in the last 14 races with two consecutive seventh-place finishes in Singapore and Malaysia the best results Vandoorne has achieved.
“With all the issues we had throughout this season I was never ‘traumatised’, but instead always wanted to fight the odds to get the best possible result and learn with every lap that I did in the car – even if sometimes my mileage was cut short by circumstance,” the former GP2 champion said in reflection.
“In the end I guess that the rookie season thing is a bit overrated. When we come to F1 we all have years of racing under our belt and the ambitions are the same as in all the series below, because if you don’t succeed there you don’t make it to F1.”
Another major hurdle Vandoorne had to deal with was the always daunting thought of partnering Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniard always capable of extracting results his machinery probably isn’t capable of and never afraid to speak his mind.
Though more often than not there has been a few tenths gap between the two McLaren drivers, Stoffel actually sees his performance and the experience alongside the double world champion as his main positive from this season.
“I fared very well against Fernando,” he claimed. “Yes, the race results were not as expected, but having a super strong teammate is a well-known value in the paddock.”
