Stoffel Vandoorne has said that staying in what he called the “Stellantis family” was best for him as he gears-up to compete for Maserati MSG Racing in Season 11 of the all-electric championship.
The Belgian, who took the title in Season 8, was speaking to Motorsport Week prior to today’s announcement that the Trident team will be committing to the GEN4 era of FE.
After his title-winning year with Mercedes in 2022, Vandoorne made the switch to DS Penske – also ran by Stellantis – but the union was not a particularly happy one. With just one podium in two seasons, Vandoorne made the decision to switch to Maserati, effectively swapping places with Maximilian Günther, who joins the Franco-American squad alongside Jean-Eric Vergne.
Vandoorne revealed he had “a couple of talks with different teams”, but said “it made sense for me to join Maserati, to stay also within the Stellantis family, because I’m also doing the Peugeot programme [in WEC] with them, so for a lot of reason that felt like the right thing to do.
“I think, even with Stellantis, we have a little bit of unfinished business. There’s still some things we want to achieve together, and hopefully, starting from this season, we can start doing that.”
Vandoorne admits that being a Maserati drives “makes [his] life easier” due to living in Monaco, where the team is based, but also makes the point that the team “is not a total stranger” to him, it having been customers of Mercedes’ powertrains back in its previous guise as Venturi.
The link between his previous and new employers give Vandoorne extra continuity, who says there was “a lot of collaboration” between the two.
“That definitely helps a lot on the human side, even kind of systems and stuff in the car.”
Vandoorne ‘settling in’ alongside ‘very quick’ Hughes
The Aston Martin Formula 1 reserve driver says he is “settling in good” and says the switch is “a little bit of a reset”, but is readily aware that the team has work to do if it is to compete for honours in this season.
“I do think we still have a bit of work to do compared to like Jaguars and Porsches and stuff – we’re maybe not quite on their level yet.
“I quite like the approach that we’re having and in some ways, not being the manufacturer team sometimes can be a little bit of a benefit.
“Although we’re kind of a manufacturer team as well, but we don’t take care of the powertrain side of things and sometimes that can be a little bit of a distraction whilst we just operate the team, operate the performance of the car and try and extract the best potential.”
Vandoorne has consistently had some good benchmarks when it comes to team-mates, having driven alongside Nyck de Vries and Vergne, both FE champions. This season, he has former Mercedes reservist Jake Hughes, who joins from NEOM McLaren after two years in which he has gradually seen his stock rise after some fabulous pole positions as well as a long-awaited podium in Shanghai.
Vandoorne says that his new partner is “very, very quick” and acknowledges his “stellar qualifying performances” in GEN3, adding: “You always want to have someone quick next to you so you can push each other and learn from each other.”
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