F1
Connor McDonagh 6y

Stoffel Vandoorne: Our rivals have progressed but we haven't

Formula 1

Stoffel Vandoorne believes McLaren hasn't made any progress since the start of the season.

The under-pressure Belgian finished last of the 15 classified finishers at Spa-Francorchamps after qualifying last of all on Saturday. McLaren struggled for pace all weekend and its non-score in Belgium means it has scored just 12 points since Monaco, with Vandoorne not scoring since Azerbaijan in April. 

Rumours continue to circulate regarding the Belgian's future at the team with Force India's Esteban Ocon heavily linked with a move to McLaren in the near future. When asked what went wrong in Belgium, he didn't have an explanation to why McLaren was so far off the pace.

"It's difficult to get a worse weekend, Vandoorne said. ''We've seen the performance we have is very far away from being good. There's not really an explanation.

"The reality is we haven't progressed since the start of the year, we haven't progressed at all compared to the others."

Reflecting on the race itself, Vandoorne said: "We tried to do something different with the strategy, tried to pit behind the safety car, and unfortunately that didn't really pay off. The race in general was quite boring for everyone. There were not many overtakes, and for us no miracles.''

McLaren sits sixth in the constructors' championship, 16 points behind Haas in fifth.

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