Stoffel Vandoorne: McLaren F1 drivers ‘very closely matched’ in 2018

Stoffel Vandoorne believes he and McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso have been “very very closely matched” in Formula 1 this year, playing down the importance of the statistics.

Alonso has out-qualified Vandoorne at each of the six Grands Prix held so far in 2018 – the only driver to do so against his respective team-mate.

Alonso has scored 32 points this year to hold eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, his streak only coming to an end when a transmission failure halted his MCL33 in Monaco while set for seventh spot.

Vandoorne, meanwhile, sits in 15th position in the championship, accruing just eight points from the first six events.

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Vandoorne, though, has defended his points return, and when asked whether the statistics reflected the relative pace of the McLaren drivers replied: “I don’t think that tells the whole story.

“Obviously the statistics tell may be that, but I think in reality we are actually very, very closely matched.

“In terms of where I was last year I feel in a much better position this year, and I think things have not always gone my way, we lacked a little bit of luck in some of the occasions and in some occasions Fernando was quicker as well, which is normal.

“But I think we’re going in the right direction, the team is moving forward.

“Obviously we’ve had a tough start to the season, there was a lot of expectations on our team, and we’ve not managed to perform as expected so we keep improving race after race and hopefully this weekend we can show that we’ve made another step forward.”

McLaren took 36 points from the opening four rounds but followed up its low-key return in Spain with its first non-score of the campaign in Monaco, with Vandoorne only 14th in a race where Alonso retired.

“It’s been a little bit of a difficult period,” he said. “I had a retirement in Spain, and then Fernando had a retirement in Monaco.

“Obviously that was not ideal but I think we’re still very close in this midfield and one weekend we are a bit stronger than another one.

“I think the last couple of races have been difficult tracks for us as well in terms of overtaking.

“I think this weekend [in Canada] is a different story, this track is completely different than the other ones and hopefully it should provide us with some opportunities.”