Birthday of Stoffel Vandoorne: The talent that could not break through in F1

F1 News

26 March 2020 at 19:33
  • GPblog.com

Stoffel Vandoorne celebrates his 28th birthday today. The Belgian is currently Nyck de Vries' team mate at the Mercedes Formula E team, after his short stint in Formula 1.

Talent

Vandoorne was regarded as one of the greatest talents when he was still driving in Formula 2. He managed to win this class in 2015 with superior numbers. With the ART Grand Prix team he won seven races and took the podium in a total of sixteen times in 22 races. His closest attacker for the title, Alexander Rossi, had achieved a total of 160 points less.

At this point in his career, Vandoorne had been working as a test driver for McLaren for some time. However, in 2016 he wasn't immediately lined up as a racing driver for the British race team. McLaren chose to continue for another year with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.

Call to race in F1

In Bahrain, the second race of 2016, Vandoorne got the chance to race for McLaren. After Alonso's heavy blowout in the first race of the season in Australia, Vandoorne was summoned to race. Alonso wasn't fully revalidated yet. Vandoorne drove a neat race and immediately scored his first World Championship point.

When Button announced in 2016 that it would be his last season in F1, Vandoorne was immediately appointed as a replacement for the Brit. He would ride alongside Alonso for two years, but didn't do to good with McLaren in 2017 and 2018. Both seasons the Belgian finished in 16th place with 13 and 12 points respectively.

Formula E with Mercedes

Mercedes took over Vandoorne and gave him a seat at HWA Racelab in Formula E. He scored one pole position and took one podium this season. Again the Belgian rider finished sixteenth in the championship. 2019/2020 looks a lot better for Stoffel. Mercedes has joined Formula E as an official factory team and after five races the Belgian has already achieved two podiums for the team and is currently in third place.