Stoffel Vandoorne ‘going in a good way’ after early F1 2017 struggles

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne says his greater experience is aiding his progress, having made gains in the wake of a difficult start to his first full season in Formula 1.

Vandoorne suffered a challenging opening sequence of races, as he lagged behind team-mate Fernando Alonso, his predicament accentuated by McLaren-Honda’s lack of reliability and performance.

However, the Belgian has closed the gap to Alonso across recent events – out-qualifying his team-mate in Britain – before going on to bag a point at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Vandoorne feels that the experience he has gathered across the opening half of the campaign has enabled him to increase his understanding of how to set up the MCL32 to suit his approach.

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“With the experience I have now I’m much more able to direct the way I want to go,” he said.

“The last few races have been very good from a performance point of view, matching Fernando on pace as well, which has been positive.

“Every weekend I’m making big steps forward and I’m pushing very hard with the team to get things in my way, trying to get the car to suit my style a little bit more.

“Every weekend we’re making positive steps. Also from my point of view in terms of managing practice sessions, managing a whole race weekend through qualifying and then the race as well is definitely going in a good direction.”

When asked whether his recent gains were down to unearthing a set-up suitable to his style or McLaren’s developments, Vandoorne replied: “It’s a bit of both to be honest.

“You can do a lot with set-up but in the end, there are things you’re locked in. You have to stay in a certain window of operating.

“As a driver, you can change some things on the set-up but you can also influence your team a lot in terms of aero development, where to take it. It is going in a good way.”