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Vandoorne pretty sure he has done enough to stay at McLaren

Vandoorne "pretty sure" he has done enough to stay at McLaren

19-07-2018 09:24

Stoffel Vandoorne remains confident that he has nailed down a contract extension with McLaren next season. With just two races left before the summer break, contract talks are expected to heat up. 

In terms of points, the Belgian is being thrashed by his team-mate, Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard is beating him 40-8. Both drivers remain out of contract at McLaren, with Alonso expected to make a move to IndyCar in pursuit of the triple crown. 

In an interview on F1i, Vandoorne was asked if he had done enough to be given an offer for 2019. He said: “pretty sure.” 

“We’ve never really discussed that with the media, so I’m not really going into that. For sure it’s not been a year and a half I was hoping to have in Formula 1. Ultimately we’ve been struggling a lot in terms of the results.” 

The 26-year-old went on to talk about the next two races. He knows he will need to continue to push for results so he ca get the contract he wants. He looks back at his time at the Hockenheimring to give him further motivation. 

“I did race at Hockenheim in GP2 and got a podium, there’s definitely good memories there for me. We know that the Hockenheimring is a challenging track, with long, fast straights that require a lot of power,” he added. 

McLaren need a good result this weekend. Anything else, and they’ll hit rock bottom going into the summer break.