'No Plan B': Vandoorne remains committed to McLaren

GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne has insisted that he remains committed to staying at McLaren-Honda and that he has no fall-back plans when it comes to his Formula One future, even though he has admitted that the team itself had made no guarantees about promoting him to a race seat in 2017.

"I grew up with Formula One watching Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, and ever since then I've been a McLaren fan," the 23-year-old Belgian revealed this week.

"Now I am contracted to McLaren. I believe in this team and this is where I want to be. Hopefully we can have a good future together here.

"I've been with them for a couple of years now and we've had a lot of success together. Hopefully we can build on that success in the future and hopefully I can get a race drive here."

Vandoorne denied rumours that he had been in negotiations with Renault over a possible drive there. Vandoorne won the 2015 GP2 title with the ART team headed by Frederic Vasseur who is now widely expected to take over as Renault team principal once the engine manufacturer's buyout of the Lotus F1 Team is completed.

"There have never been discussions with them," Vandoorne said, adding there was no 'Plan B' other than McLaren as far as he was concerned when it came to Formula One. "I am not thinking about that at the moment. I am really trying to focus on my job this year as a reserve driver."

It's not exactly a secret that 2015 was a painful year for everyone at McLaren and Honda, with one of the worst seasons ever experienced by the team in its time in the sport. However, Vandoorne is convinced that things are now turning around.

"It's all going pretty well here," said Vandoorne when asked what the mood was like at Woking heading into the 2016 season. "It's good. Everybody is working hard on the new car this year, but we will still have to wait a bit longer until the first test I think, or even the first race before we know how well we have moved on from 2015.

"It's always difficult to say exactly how much we've moved on, how much we've progressed compared with last year, so it's better just to wait and see at the first test."

There had been suggestions that Formula One might be forced to allow three cars per team this year if financial problems had led to some of the smaller teams closing their doors, which fortunately hasn't happened over the winter. Asked how he thought he would fare if racing side-by-side with McLaren's current driver line up for former world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, Vandoorne certainly didn't lack in confidence.

"Very difficult to say - hopefully I'll beat them, that's my goal anyway!" he laughed. "Every time I get in a car I want to show that I am the quickest guy around. It’s difficult to know exactly where I would place myself, but I'll try everything to beat them. That's what we're here for - we are racing drivers, we are here to compete."

Vandoorne will be at the wheel of the McLaren again this week at the Paul Ricard Circuit, as his test and reserve duties see him take part in this week's Pirelli wet tyre test.

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