Vandoorne : 'New cars will take every corner up a notch'

McLaren rookie Stoffel Vandoorne believes the downforce and mechanical grip of the 2017 cars will simply upgrade every corner by a notch in terms of speed.

New aero rules and wider tyres  are forecasting much faster cars this season, especially in the corners, a prospect which has the Belgian raring to go.

"I think everything will take a step up – high-speed corners will probably become flat, or close to flat; the mid-speed corners will probably become high-speed corners", he said enthusiastically, speaking on McLaren official website.

"And I think the low-speed stuff will still be very similar, it will just be a general step up everywhere.”

Case in point: Barcelona, where pre-season testing will either confirm or invalidate what drivers are expecting.

"I’m really hoping that we’ll be able to take Turn Three at Barcelona flat this year," he added.

"It’s a corner that I’ve been able to take flat in the junior series, such as Formula Renault 3.5, so you’d expect it to be flat in Formula 1 as well, even though there’s a lot more horsepower.

"Obviously, I’ve still only driven it in the sim, but using our current predictions, it should be flat – whether it actually will be, we’ll have to wait and see."

• Brown rates Vandoorne: 'He's a future world champion!'

Vandoorne spent part of the 2016 season racing in the Super Formula series in Japan, where fast corners abound.

"I definitely feel it was good for me to race those cars, because they were very quick in the corners. And in Japan, the tracks were very high-speed focused as well, so it was a good opportunity.

"Whether it was good preparation or not for this year, I won’t be able to give you a better answer until after I’ve driven this year’s car!"

GALLERY: F1 drivers' wives and girlfriends

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter