Stoffel Vandoorne wins the GP2 title
If he didn't win the two races in Sochi, Stoffel Vandoorne ensured the essentials for this Russian weekend: winning the GP2 championship. He can now focus on the rest of his career, with F1 in sight.
From an accounting perspective, Stoffel Vandoorne’s weekend wasn’t the best of his season, but the Belgian had different objectives for this stage: “We knew coming here that this would be our goal. We could have done it yesterday, but not everything went well. But finishing in 4th place today ahead of Alex Rossi was enough. That’s what matters in the end.”
However, he clearly dominated the season, with four pole positions and five race victories. This allows him to be crowned while there are four races remaining: “Being crowned with two rounds still to go demonstrates all the work we have done this season and how well it has gone with ART. We have achieved great things over the past two years. We have broken almost every record this season. It’s something I will remember forever.”
The McLaren protégé thus fulfilled the mission assigned to him by the Woking team: “I knew what my mission was. I wanted to dominate the championship in my second season. McLaren did too: everyone told me I had everything at my disposal to win. It’s a great feeling to have done it. There’s always a bit of pressure at the start of a season but I think we handled it very well.”
The question now arises about the future of the young driver. Despite an already impressive track record (runner-up in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2, and champion in Formula 4, Formula Renault 2.0, and thus GP2), he is not assured of a place in F1 next season since McLaren has already confirmed its two drivers and Honda has no other team where it could place its young driver. Nevertheless, F1 remains indeed his main goal: « *Let’s hope it will be Formula One. It’s something I’ve been working towards for some time. Now I’ve won the GP2 title with some margin with two races left to run. The next race is in a month. So I can focus on preparing for next year, which is great. Unfortunately, nothing is decided yet, but I’m optimistic. I think there are a few opportunities. The next days and weeks will be crucial for next year.* »
Ron Dennis and Eric Boullier will therefore have to work hard to find a solution very quickly to avoid the risk of wasting a second talent, as Kevin Magnussen’s future also seems quite blocked.
