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Following the announcement that McLaren has retained Stoffel Vandoorne for next season, the team leaders have said that they are hoping to achieve huge success with the Belgian at the wheel. Vandoorne is regarded as one of the upcoming talents in the sport, despite an uneasy season so far.
The 2017 slow and unreliable McLaren-Honda package has given Vandoorne many problems, as he himself admitted he hasn't had a chance to prove himself. Racing Director Eric Boullier says that he is confident Vandoorne will one day find success with the team.
"When we announced at the end of 2016 that Stoffel would be a McLaren Honda race driver for 2017, we indicated that our plan was that he’d race for us for a number of years," the Frenchman said. "That plan hasn’t changed, and I’m very happy therefore to be able to confirm that he’ll continue to race for us next season.
"Like all rookies, he’s had to learn a lot in the first half of his first Formula 1 season, but we have great confidence in him, and he’s getting better and better all the time. His teammate is a tough opponent – that’s an understatement in fact, because he’s arguably the best driver in the sport today – but Stoffel’s robust talent and fierce ambition make us sure that he’ll achieve great successes with us in the future."
Executive Director Zak Brown also spoke about the 25-year-old, and believes that he will one day be winning Grands Prix with the Woking outfit: "Echoing Eric’s words, I’d like to add only that I regard Stoffel as a super talent – a future Formula 1 world champion in fact – and that’s why I’ve always been adamant that he should race for us on a multi-year basis.
"Before anyone asks me any questions about duration, we don’t want to go into that kind of confidential contractual detail, but let me put it this way: when we signed Stoffel, we intended that he would race for us for a significant number of years, and that remains our firm intention. We all know Stoffel’s potential, and when we have a package fast enough to win Grands Prix again – and we will – Stoffel will be in the right place to score his first Formula 1 victory."
Fergal Walsh
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Zak Brown can talk. If only, he could deliver