Performing well compared to team-mate Fernando Alonso during his rookie Formula 1 season will a benefit to Stoffel Vandoorne, according to the Belgian himself.
Vandoorne finally makes his full-time debut alongside the Spaniard at the McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team in 2017 after a one-off points-scoring outing in Bahrain in 2016, and he steps into the seat vacated by Jenson Button.
The twenty-four-year-old believes that Alonso is a good benchmark for his rookie campaign, and if he shows good pace compared to his team-mate, it will be good for his career.
“It’s good to have Fernando next to me because everybody rates him very highly, probably one of the quickest guys in Formula One and every time he’s out on track he just delivers all the time,” said Vandoorne to F1i.com
“It’s good to get that benchmark. I think for me it’s good to be alongside him because if I fare well it’s going to be good for my career as well.”
Vandoorne insists that he will have to perform to the best of his ability in 2017 to get the results, and is ready to push the team forward in the third year of the renewed partnership between McLaren and Honda.
“When you’re in Formula 1, no matter what the circumstances are you always have to do a good job and I don’t expect anything different next year.
“I will just be focusing on doing the job, doing the best I can, working hard for the team, pushing everybody forward and I think this is the most important thing. Whatever the results will be is difficult to tell at the moment but we’ll make the most of it.”
