Vandoorne out at McLaren!

[geeks]

Kinda saw that coming I guess; http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11489381/st...

[Sheetmaself]

Im surprised he’s being kept on until the end of the year to be honest.

[kambites]

Sheetmaself said:

Im surprised he’s being kept on until the end of the year to be honest.

Who else would be realistically available to take the seat for the rest of this year?

[Sixpackpert]

kambites said:

Sheetmaself said:

Im surprised he’s being kept on until the end of the year to be honest.

Who else would be realistically available to take the seat for the rest of this year?

Musical chairs...Stroll to Force India and Perez to McLaren?

[37chevy]

soooo will it be Perez, Ocon or Norris.

I'm surprised with either Perez or Ocon losing their seat to Stroll in the next few races that McLaren don't take a punt and put one of them in the car until the end of the season as a trial.

think Norris will be a top f1 driver but think another year of F2 could be benefitial to him

[kambites]

Sixpackpert said:

Musical chairs...Stroll to Force India and Perez to McLaren?

And Vandoorne to Williams you mean? I can't see Perez going to Mclaren unless he was forced; FI are already within 20 points of Mclaren in the constructors championship and their points were wiped out two races ago!

[Sixpackpert]

kambites said:

Sixpackpert said:

Musical chairs...Stroll to Force India and Perez to McLaren?

And Vandoorne to Williams you mean? I can't see Perez going to Mclaren unless he was forced; FI are already within 20 points of Mclaren in the constructors championship and their points were wiped out two races ago!

Williams could promote their test driver for the rest of the season...

[kambites]

Sixpackpert said:

Williams could promote their test driver for the rest of the season...

It would certainly have been interesting to see Kubica's race pace.

[Jordan210]

Lando Norris in

[37chevy]

Jordan210 said:

Lando Norris in

maybe too soon? I dunno. hes been good in f2 this year, but think he could benefit from another year...and hes still only 18. its a tough call whether to make the jump or not

[Jasandjules]

kambites said:

It would certainly have been interesting to see Kubica's race pace.

Which would have been 0.5-1.0 second a lap faster than the two pay drivers in right now and really, really, really show them up.....Exactly the reason why they won't do it...

[anonymous-user]

It's hard to work out what exactly Vandorne did wrong. He didn't have Alonso's pace or consistency, and there was the odd lackluster weekend, but if we regard Alonso as working miracles each weekend in a McLaren that just doesn't have underlying pace, Stoffel's actually been doing an alright job being as close as he is. I hope he finds another drive - he's a decent operator. Sauber or Torro Rosso perhaps.

Perhaps Norris was being approached by other teams and they've been pushed into promoting him for risk of losing him all together.

[carinaman]

Nice to see at least one tweet reply to McLaren's announcement about the treatment of Vandoorne.

[Jinba Ittai]

I think if Norris hasn't got a race seat in F1 for next year by the end of Sept, he's a free agent. Which would suggest that he will land at McLaren. Unless they have negotiated a new contract with him which now cast iron guarantees him a 2020 race seat and he a does a year of FP1 outings. I don't think he would benefit from another year of F2, even though it looks like Russell will win the title this year. Can't see him being loaned to Toro Rosso for a year. His F2 campaign has gone off the boil a bit, could it be because he knows his F1 future has been secured?

My punt -

Norris to McLaren
Ocon to Wiliams with either Sirotkin or Markelov
LeClerc to Ferrari
Giovinazzi and Ericsson at Sauber
Kvyat and Vandoorne at TR

[Jinba Ittai]

McLaren just confirmed Norris!!!!!!!

[Sheetmaself]

kambites said:

Sheetmaself said:

Im surprised he’s being kept on until the end of the year to be honest.

Who else would be realistically available to take the seat for the rest of this year?

It depends on how important lower championships are deemed to be but as suggested Norris maybe or Kubica if he would be released or someone else on the development plan. I just think it could be a good way of seeing who would fit for the year after as opposed to keeping someone in the car they deem not to be doing a good enough job.

[ralphrj]

NFC 85 Vette said:

Perhaps Norris was being approached by other teams and they've been pushed into promoting him for risk of losing him all together.

This is exactly what has happened. McLaren's option on Norris would expire at the end of September if they couldn't place him in an F1 seat.

Helmut Marko has openly said that he was rejecting discussions about taking Norris on loan at Toro Rosso as he knew that the only option to McLaren was to give Norris a drive themselves (which they didn't really want to do) or lose him to Red Bull.

[bobbo89]

Love to see Vandoorne go to Torro Rosso now and spend next year beating McLarens in a Honda powered car!

[ghost83]

Thank Christ for that I don’t rate vandoorne at all! Quite like Norris so hope they can build a decent car

[Sheetmaself]

Agree with the above to be honest as apart from getting a little lost he seems to me at least to have had a reasonable season in comparison to Fernando.