Boullier: 'Vandoorne form not as good as expected'

McLaren race director Eric Boullier admits that Stoffel Vandoorne's performance level this year has been disappointing.

Vandoorne has been outqualified by team mate Fernando Alonso at every race this year, and generally performed under par compared to expectations, and taking into account is impressive credentials garnered in the junior category.

McLaren is committed however  to help the Belgian however improve his form.

"His form is not as good as expected, as we were all expected," Boullier told Sky F1's Simon Lazenby.

• Wolff tosses out talk of Alonso joining Mercedes... again.

"He had a pretty high track record in the junior categories, he won everything he went through like Lewis. He's very talented.

"It's true that we didn't give him 100 percent to do well because he had a lot of issues on his car and it was quite recurrent but we are now addressing this properly to help him drive the car the way we designed  the car and the way we want him to drive to be fast.

"I'm confident he will achieve this.  All the young drivers, starting with Verstappen, all struggling in the first six months."

GALLERY: F1 drivers' wives and girlfriends

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

LAST CHANCE to enter our ULTIMATE TRACKDAY competition! FREE ENTRY HERE!