Manor seat could be good preparation - Vandoorne

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Stoffel Vandoorne believes a seat at Manor for the rest of the season could be good preparation for a potential drive at McLaren in 2017.

With Rio Haryanto's future uncertain beyond this weekend's German Grand Prix, Vandoorne has been linked with a move to Manor for the rest of the season. While F1i understands McLaren has been provisionally contacted as Manor investigates which drivers are available, the Belgian says he can see the advantages such a drive could bring.

"Difficult to say, for sure it has positive, maybe some negatives as well," Vandoorne said when asked if he'd like the opportunity. "I’m a racing driver, I always want to be in a racing car and I like to be behind the wheel.

"I don’t know, it could for sure be a good preparation in terms of next year, it’s maybe not the most competitive car but you still learn how to work in an environment like F1. Especially the tracks as well, the end of the year is all tracks I’ve never been to in GP2 so I think it would be quite something good."

And Vandoorne says he is not expecting to be the only driver Manor is interested in, saying very little contact has taken place so far.

"It’s just rumours. It’s nice to see there’s interest from other teams which is pretty normal at this stage I think but there’s nothing more I can add to that really.

"I haven’t spoken to anyone and if there is an interest from their part for sure they will probably contact McLaren and I’m sure we would have talked about it but so far I haven’t spoken to anyone about it.

"I was surprised as I hadn’t spoken to anyone about it, so I think these days people write stories for everything they hear, bit surprised but on the other side it’s good to see there is interest from other teams.

"I'm definitely maybe not the only driver on the list for a seat at Manor, I think they have enough choice in the whole paddock and everybody around, we’ll see, I think if they want me to have in their car then the first step is probably to contact McLaren."

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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.