Former Driver Points Fingers at McLaren ‘Politics’ for Brief F1 Career

Belgian racing driver Stoffel Vandoorne recently dropped a huge McLaren F1 claim. Vandoorne currently drives for the Mercedes-EQ team. He has been a part of the paddock with the Mclaren team from 2016 to 2018. Moreover, he is also a test driver for the Mercedes F1 team. In a hypothetical situation of Hamilton’s retirement, many even considered the 29-year-old as a potential replacement, owing to his prior F1 experience.

Vandoorne started 42 races for the Woking-based outfit. His debut race was the 2016 Bahrain GP, and he lastly appeared during the 2018 Abu Dhabi GP. He remained winless during his short F1 stint, having accumulated a total of 26 career points. Though he has achieved tremendous success in Formula E, his failed F1 dream still haunts him at some level.

When Vandoorne joined the team, McLaren was going through a failed Honda partnership. The Japanese manufacturer and the men from Woking paired up for three seasons between 2015 to 2017, where Mclaren ended up taking 9th, 6th, and 9th spot in the Constructors’ standings. Vandoorne, alongside Fernando Alonso, had to yield their ground regularly because of the shortcomings in the car.

More recently, the Belgian driver discussed his failed F1 dream, and he blames the McLaren “politics” for it.

Stoffel Vandoorne blames McLaren F1 “politics” for his premature exit

42 Grand Prix starts are considered fairly low for an F1 driver. An exceptional driver like Sergio Perez took over 190 race starts to clinch his first F1 victory. So what happened with Vandoorne that forced him out of F1 so quickly? In a recent interview reported by PlanetF1, Vandoorne opened up about his partnership with Fernando Alonso and the team’s internal politics.

When asked if too much focus on Alonso hampered his career, he had a rather straightforward yes. “Yes. Unfortunately, I have never been able to tell 99 percent of what happened. You didn’t see everything that happened behind the scenes, all the politics,” said the 29-year-old.

Moreover, McLaren talks with drivers like Lando Norris, and Carlos Sainz also demoralized him. “It’s not easy to drive at your best when you know the team is negotiating with other drivers behind your back.” 

“There are very few opportunities to get into F1 and despite the situation, I found myself in with McLaren, I could not refuse the opportunity. Unfortunately, it was the worst period in their history–the car was not performing well and the team was not politically stable,” added the Belgian driver. [h/t Planetf1.com]

However, he moved to Formula E in the 2018-19 season and earned a career-best P2 finish in the 2019-20 season for the Mercedes-Benz EQ team. Moreover, he has started the latest season on a high. Tell us what you think of such political moves inside F1.

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