Meeting McLaren's next F1 superstar

To McLaren last week, for lunch with Stoffel Vandoorne, who this year becomes a full-time Formula 1 driver. As I write, the personable Vandoorne has but one grand prix to his name, subbing for Alonso in Bahrain last year, following Fernando's accident in Melbourne: impressively he scored a point, after outqualifying Jenson Button, and may be regarded as a superstar of the coming generation, alongside such as Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

While Olivier Gendebien was one of the greatest sportscar drivers of all time, down the years Belgium has produced curiously few F1 drivers of consequence, with only Jacky Ickx and Thierry Boutsen on the list of grand prix winners. Assuredly Vandoorne will join them.

A member of McLaren's Young Driver Programme since 2013, Stoffel competed in both Formula Renault 2.0 and 3.5 before winning the GP2 championship in 2015. As McLaren's reserve driver, to stay sharp he spent last year in Japan's Super Formula.

"It seemed the best choice available," he explained in his impeccable English. "They're quite nice cars, and I was using a Honda engine, of course, so that helped in building up a relationship with them. There was a lot of jetlag, but I enjoyed Japan, and I loved the tracks - proper 'old school' tracks, without any runoff area."

Ah, the eternal paradox of motor racing. For all we live in an era preoccupied with safety, earnestly discussing 'halos' and the like, this seems never to carry over into the matter of circuits.

"Well, it's the challenge. It's not like going to a new track, where from lap one you do whatever you want because if something happens you just correct and go into a huge runoff. On 'old school' tracks you have to build up to it.

"A place like Sugo, for example, is fantastic - the last corner is 180 degrees, taken at about 240km/h [150mph], with a big bump in the middle, and the only runoff is a metre of grass, and then the wall. At a track like that you really feel satisfied when you do a proper lap, but Formula 1 would never race on most of the Japanese tracks..."

Vandoorne, like most of us, dislikes the 'penalty culture' that has increasingly dominated F1 of late, feeling that drivers should be punished by the circuit, rather than by the stewards.

"The worst thing about the penalties," he said, "is that they're not applied consistently - every weekend is different. At every drivers' meeting the same issue comes up, and by the end of it drivers don't know what they can - and can't - do.

"It's maybe just better to let us race - we're all grown-up boys, and we don't want to crash into each other: after all, if you break a wing your race is over.

"I think the circuits contribute to it, too. If you make a mistake, it should cost you time, and even a gravel trap, rather than an asphalt runoff, would do that. I prefer the 'old school' tracks because a driver can make more of a difference - and also because if you do something bad, you pay in cash.

"The tracks are never going to return to how they were because it's all about safety now - in a way, that's good because the last thing we want to see is someone getting badly hurt or dying, but if the risk is not there, it's less challenging."

Opinions vary about what effect the forthcoming technical changes will bring to F1, but one cause for optimism is that the powers-that-be have changed their stance on tyres, requesting now that Pirelli build sensible tyres, after the high-degradation nonsense of the past few years.

In Japan Vandoorne and his rivals used rubber provided by Yokohama, and he said it took a little getting used to. "It was certainly different - in the sense that it was normal!"

You mean it... didn't fall apart after five laps?

"Exactly! The Yokohamas were peaky for qualifying, so you had one-lap performance, and then in the race at, say, Suzuka, we could do 40 laps on the same set of tyres, pushing flat out, with lap times within two tenths..."

Testing, as we know, is as good as banned these days, putting ever more emphasis on extraordinarily sophisticated - and expensive - simulators. How much time did Stoffel spend in the McLaren 'sim' in 2016?

"Not a huge amount - but enough to get bored with it! Of course in my case it was useful from the point of view of learning the tracks, and working with the team, going through set-up changes, but sometimes driving laps, laps, laps at somewhere you know by heart, like Barcelona, can be too much of a good thing. Well, it is for me, anyway! On days like that you have to tell yourself, 'I need to do this because it's valuable to the team'."

Vandoorne says his relationship with Alonso has been excellent over the past two years. "Of course it's easier to have that when you're not directly competing against each other, but it was good for me to see how Fernando was managing the team, how he prepared for a race weekend.

"He's the most complete driver in F1, he performs in any conditions, and every time he goes out he's right there, so I'm glad to have him next to me - if I fare well, it will obviously be good for my career.

"For me the coolest moment was walking into this building for the first time, and seeing all the McLarens from the past. I'd love to think that one day a car of mine will be there in the boulevard, next to Senna, Prost and all the others..."

That looks to be guaranteed. Over time McLaren has often turned to Rob Wilson, the celebrated racer-turned-instructor, to coach its young drivers, including the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

"Stoffel," says Wilson, "has the best car control I've ever seen - in fact, he reminds me of Jochen Rindt..."

Quite a statement.