Vandoorne determined to work through McLaren woes

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Stoffel Vandoorne made his Formula 1 début in Bahrain one year ago and scored a point on his maiden appearance. Second time around and he didn't even make it to the start.

“It’s a real shame that we weren’t even able to start the race today," he said after his MCL32 was pulled off before the formation lap.

"The team discovered a water-pressure issue on the way to the grid.

"It’s disappointing, obviously, that we come all the way here and can’t even start the race," he said. "It’s frustrating when you do all the preparation work and put in so much effort."

Vandoorne's DNS came after an already troubled weekend for McLaren. Vandoorne himself had already suffered two failures during Friday's free practice sessions. His team mate Fernando Alonso also ended up retiring from the race near the end with a power unit issue.

The never-ended cascade of problems for the team is certainly proving a trial for everyone concerned, Vandoorne included. But he's determined to see it through and come out the other side.

Alonso vents: 'Never raced with less power in my life'

"We knew from the beginning of the season that the situation we were in was going to be difficult," said the Belgian.

"I have an extremely good relationship with the team. I believe that we’ll get on top of these issues, and I’m confident that I can do a good job when everything comes together.

"We’re going through a hard time. It’s not fun for us to go through this. But this is what it is at the moment, and today shows that.

"I’ll keep my head down, I’ll work hard with the team, and I’m sure there will be some improvements at some point.

"When they will be, it’s difficult to say. But I’m confident that they’ll come.

"We’ve lost quite a bit of mileage so it’s definitely not an ideal situation. We need to make a good step forward soon. Hopefully we can show that at some point in the next few races.”

GALLERY: All the action from the Bahrain Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.