Stoffel Vandoorne

Stoffel Vandoorne
Vandoorne in 2013.
Nationality	Belgian
Born	26 March 1992 Kortrijk, Belgium
Super Formula career
Debut season	2016
Current team	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing
Car no.	41
Starts	1
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Previous series
2014–2015 2013 2011–12 2011–12 2010	GP2 Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC F4 Eurocup 1.6
Championship titles
2015 2012 2010	GP2 Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 F4 Eurocup 1.6
Formula One World Championship career
2016 team	McLaren-Honda
Car number	47
Entries	1 (1 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	1
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2016 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last entry	2016 Bahrain Grand Prix

Stoffel Vandoorne (born 26 March 1992) is a professional racing driver from Belgium, currently competing in Super Formula.^[1] He is also the reserve driver for the McLaren Formula One team, and made his debut at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Career

Karting

Born in Kortrijk, Vandoorne began his karting career in 1998 at age six, and ten years later won the Belgian KF2 Championship. In 2009 he finished as runner-up in the CIK-FIA World Cup in the KF2 category.^[2]

Formula Renault

In 2010, Vandoorne moved up to single-seater racing, joining the F4 Eurocup 1.6 series.^[3] He went on to win the series on his first attempt, finishing the season with six wins and three further podium finishes.^[4]

In 2011, he graduated to competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with Kurt Mollekens' KTR team.^[5] He finished fifth overall, with one podium at the Hungaroring and another eight point-scoring finishes throughout the season.^[6] He also participated in Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, where he finished third in the series' standings with eight podiums.^[7]

For the 2012 season Vandoorne remained in the Eurocup, but left KTR to join Josef Kaufmann Racing.^[8] He won the championship by ten points after a tight battle between himself and Red Bull backed Daniil Kvyat. Between them they won 11 of the 14 races and finished over 100 points ahead of their nearest challenger. Vandoorne finished the season with four wins and six podiums to his name. He also contested selected events in the Northern European Cup, where he won five of the seven races that he started, and finished on the podium in a sixth race.

In 2013, Vandoorne raced in Formula Renault 3.5, where he replaced 2012 champion Robin Frijns at Fortec Motorsport.^[9] He finished runner-up to fellow McLaren young driver Kevin Magnussen with four wins and 10 podiums, including a victory at his home track of Spa-Francorchamps.

GP2 Series

Vandoorne racing at the Silverstone round of the 2014 GP2 Series

In January 2014, it was confirmed that Vandoorne would make his debut in GP2, racing with ART. In the opening race at Bahrain, Vandoorne claimed his first victory of the season in the feature race. He followed this up with four consecutive pole positions, three more wins at the Hungaroring, Monza and Yas Marina and six additional podiums. Despite being a rookie, he finished runner-up to 2014 champion Jolyon Palmer.

Vandoorne reunited with ART for 2015, as well as was considered the main title contender.^[10] He was partnered by 2014 Japanese Formula Three champion Nobuharu Matsushita. After five feature race wins, twelve podiums and four pole positions, Vandoorne took the title in Sochi, 108 points over his nearest rival Alexander Rossi.

Formula One

In February 2013, Vandoorne joined McLaren's Young Driver Programme,^[11] under the tutelage of his manager Richard Goddard, in collaboration with the team's sporting director Sam Michael and its head of communications Matt Bishop, to whom Vandoorne had been introduced in 2011 by Alex Wurz.^[12][13]

In January 2014, he was announced as a third driver for McLaren F1 also taking up driving duties in the GP2 Series for ART Grand Prix.^[14]

McLaren (2016)

On 31 March 2016, it was announced Vandoorne would be replacing regular driver Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain Grand Prix after the Spaniard was ruled unfit to drive following a major accident in the previous round.^[15] After qualifying 12th ahead of Jenson Button, Vandoorne finished 10th and became the first reserve driver to score points on debut since Sebastian Vettel at the 2007 United States Grand Prix.

Vandoorne picked the car number 47 as he took 4 victories in the 2014 GP2 season and 7 in 2015.^[16]

Super Formula

On 12 February 2016, it was announced that Vandoorne will race in Super Formula in 2016.^[1]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2010	F4 Eurocup 1.6	Autosport Academy	14	5	5	4	9	151	1st
2011	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	KTR	14	0	0	0	1	93	5th
	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC		14	0	3	0	8	328	3rd
2012	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Josef Kaufmann Racing	14	4	6	3	11	244	1st
	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC		7	5	4	5	6	176	9th
2013	Formula Renault 3.5	Fortec Motorsport	17	4	3	2	10	214	2nd
2014	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	22	4	4	3	10	229	2nd
	Formula One	McLaren Mercedes	Test driver
2015	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	21	7	4	7	16	341.5	1st
	Formula One	McLaren Honda	Test driver
2016	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	1	0	0	0	1	6*	3rd*
	Formula One	McLaren Honda	1	0	0	0	0	1*	17th*

* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos.	Points
2013	Fortec Motorsports	MNZ 1 1	MNZ 2 3	ALC 1 8	ALC 2 3	MON 1 9	SPA 1 13	SPA 2 1	MSC 1 1	MSC 2 1	RBR 1 Ret	RBR 2 Ret	HUN 1 4	HUN 2 2	LEC 1 2	LEC 2 Ret	CAT 1 3	CAT 2 2	2nd	214

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2014	ART Grand Prix	BHR FEA 1	BHR SPR 22	ESP FEA 13	ESP SPR 10	MON FEA 14	MON SPR 13	AUT FEA 2	AUT SPR 15	GBR FEA 3	GBR SPR 9	GER FEA 2	GER SPR 3	HUN FEA 7	HUN SPR 1	BEL FEA 2	BEL SPR 6	ITA FEA 1	ITA SPR 13	RUS FEA 5	RUS SPR 2	ABU FEA 1	ABU SPR 5	2nd	229
2015	ART Grand Prix	BHR FEA 1	BHR SPR 2	ESP FEA 1	ESP SPR 2	MON FEA 1	MON SPR 8	AUT FEA 1	AUT SPR 2	GBR FEA 3	GBR SPR 9	HUN FEA 5	HUN SPR 2	BEL FEA 1	BEL SPR 4	ITA FEA 2	ITA SPR 3	RUS FEA 3	RUS SPR 4	BHR FEA 1	BHR SPR 2	ABU FEA 1	ABU SPR C	1st	341.5

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	WDC	Points
2016	McLaren Honda	McLaren MP4-31	Honda RA616H 1.6 V6 t	AUS	BHR 10	CHN	RUS	ESP	MON	CAN	EUR	AUT	GBR	HUN	GER	BEL	ITA	SIN	MAL	JPN	USA	MEX	BRA	ABU	17th*	1*

* Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2016	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 3	OKA	FUJ	MOT	AUT	SUG	SUZ	SUZ	3rd*	6*

* Season still in progress.

References

1. "McLaren F1 reserve Stoffel Vandoorne seals Honda Super Formula seat". Autosport.com. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
2. "Stoffel Career History". stoffelvandoorne.com. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
3. "F4 Eurocup 1.6 2010 drivers". F4 Eurocup 1.6. Auto Sport Academy. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
4. "F4 Eurocup 1.6 2010". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
5. "Vandoorne debut with KTR". ItaliaRacing.net (Inpagina). 2010-10-31. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
6. "Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup 2011". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
7. "Formula Renault 2.0 NEC 2011". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
8. "Vandoorne vise le titre avec Kaufmann" [Vandoorne eyes the title with Kaufmann]. AUTOhebdo (in French) (Groupe Hommell). 25 November 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
9. Beer, Matt (21 December 2012). "Stoffel Vandoorne takes Frijns' place at Fortec for FR3.5 season". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 22 December 2012.
10. "GP2 - DAMS duo must 'gang up' on Vandoorne". January 10, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
11. O'Leary, Jamie (18 February 2013). "Stoffel Vandoorne joins McLaren F1 Young Driver Programme". Autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 24 February 2013.
12. "Q&A-with-McLaren-Young-Driver-Stoffel-Vandoorne".
13. "Q&A with McLaren Young Driver: Stoffel Vandoorne". mclaren.com. 27 August 2013.
14. "Stoffel Vandoorne officieel reserverijder voor McLaren F1" [Stoffel Vandoorne officially reserve driver for McLaren F1]. Autosport.be (in Dutch).
15. "Alonso will not race in the Bahrain GP". motorsport.com. 31 March 2016.
16. "岡山〜バーレーン。バンドーン移動の顛末と父に聞く息子のF1デビュー [From Okayama to Bahrain. Detailed account of travel of Vandoorne, and his F1 debut; talking with his father.]" (in Japanese). Auto Sport (Japan). 1 April 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Stoffel Vandoorne career summary at DriverDB.com