Wolff will find Vandoorne a seat if McLaren doesn't

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he will find Stoffel Vandoorne a seat in F1 if McLaren doesn't promote the young Belgian next season.

Vandoorne has been hugely impressive in lower categories as he awaits an F1 chance, dominating the GP2 championship in 2015 but having to race in Super Formula this year as McLaren kept its line-up of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

With Button out of contract at the end of the season, McLaren is expected to finally give Vandoorne a full-time race seat, but insists it has yet to take a decision on next year's drivers.

Wolff says Vandoorne "has the most impressive record" of all the future prospects breaking into F1, and insists he will ensure the Belgian gets a race seat if McLaren doesn't take him in 2017.

"Today in F1 with Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Pascal Wehrlein there is the potential of several future stars," Wolff told the Belgian daily La Dernière Heure.

"But among them, the one that probably has the most impressive record is Stoffel. I am 100% sure that he will race in Formula One in 2017. And if McLaren is too crazy not to take him, and if he doesn't find a seat elsewhere, I will find him a place myself. I promise. "

Vandoorne scored a point on his F1 debut for McLaren at this year's Bahrain Grand Prix, where he raced in place of the injured Alonso.

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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.