Verstappen: Vandoorne 'had no chance' at McLaren

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Max Verstappen says that Stoffel Vandoorne never really had a fair opportunity to prove himself at McLaren.

"I never thought he had a good chance with Fernando," the Red Bull driver told Dutch publication Formule 1 this week.

"I really like Stoffel," Verstappen continued. "He's a very good driver. Fernando has the same car, but I think he always had newer parts.

"That's a shame, because with such a large team as McLaren you would expect they would always have two versions of something new.

"I don't think he had a very good chance against Fernando and of course you pay for that."

Verstappen said there was no chance that Vandoorne's F1 career would be saved by the offer of a race seat at Toro Rosso.

"No. Maybe I know who is going there," said Verstappen with a smile.

It leaves Vandoorne with limited chances of staying in Formula 1 next year. The Belgian driver has said that if there's no options in F1 then he will be open to offers of racing in other championships.

Norris: Vandoorne thrown in 'at the deepest end possible'

“There’s been a lot of talks obviously and not only in Formula 1,” said Vandoorne.

“We’ve been exploring some different series as well which hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will know something more about. Until the Formula 1 door closes you’ve got to keep all the options open.

"There’s some interesting projects that could become a possibility for next year but at the moment nothing is done and I’m still a free agent."

He could even find himself competing with his Alonso again, if both men end up racing in the US IndyCar Series.

Vandoorne says that could appeal to him, although the recent huge accident for Robert Wickens has left him with a lot to think about. The former DTM racer suffered serious injuries after a massive crash last month at Pocono.

"Obviously after what happened with Robert it’s sometimes not always that appealing," Vandoorne admitted. Even so, the idea of racing in the iconic Indianapolis 500 remained a big draw.

"It’s definitely one of the biggest events in the world. I think if you have an opportunity to compete in that and to maybe fight for victories is probably something very special."

He added that much depended on whether McLaren would field a full-time entry in next year's IndyCar championship.

"I think until the team has decided exactly what they want to do it’s hard to make a decision or see an opportunity with that.”

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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.