Despite a disappointing start to the Formula 1 2017 season, Stoffel Vandoorne believes this is beneficial for his development.
The McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team driver joined the team after Jenson Button stepped down as a Grand Prix driver at the end of last season. Vandoorne experienced his first Grand Prix during a one-off appearance in the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, scoring McLaren’s first point of the season. He has yet to replicated that performance in the first four races, with McLaren experiencing a terrible start to its season.
Before Formula 1, the Belgian was winning titles in the F4 Eurocup series, Formula Renault 2.0 and GP2, so his current career is a little different as he’s almost never had a tough time. For him though this is a new experience for him and he believes these issues allow him the opportunity to learn a lot.
“I think it’s actually been very good for me to develop as a driver,” he told Motorsport.com in Sochi. “Even though it’s a difficult situation, I think there’s so much you learn from this.
“In my junior series [career], I’ve never almost really had a tough time. I was always fighting for victories, fighting for championships and everything was more or less going smooth.
“Okay, you have the one-off bad race, but it’s kind of a new experience for me to go through a bit of a tougher time, where things don’t go as you’re planning. There’s a lot to learn from that for me.”
