McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne believes he is finally reaping the benefits of the knowledge and experience he has gained this year.
The Belgian's first full season of F1 racing got off to a rocky start, hindered by Honda's reliability issues but also an approach to his driving which perhaps limited his ability to extract the most of his car.
A few personal tweaks and better experience coupled with McLaren-Honda's improvements have definitely helped Vandoorne lift his level of performance just before the summer break.
"With the experience I have now, I'm much more able to direct the way I want to go," he said.
"I think the last few races have been very good from a performance point of view, matching Fernando on pace as well, which has been positive."
The 25-year-old is still on a learning curb however, but his recent progress marks an important breakthrough with more to come.
"Every weekend I'm still making big steps forward and I'm pushing very hard with the team to get things in my way, let's say, trying to get the car to suit my style a little bit more," he adds.
"Also from my point of view in terms of managing practice sessions, managing a whole race weekend through qualifying and then the race is definitely going in a good direction."
"It has been good progress during that first part. I think that the margin to improve is still big; there are a lot of things to come, so that is looking promising for the next races."
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