McLaren: Toro Rosso should sign Vandoorne

McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes that Toro Rosso should take a chance on Stoffel Vandoorne, who was axed by Brown's side yesterday.

There aren't too many options for Vandoorne if we wants to continue his Formula One career, but Toro Rosso do appear to be one of the limited options.

With Brendon Hartley's future far from certain, and Pierre Gasly off to Red Bull, there looks like there could be two seats available.

Brown believes that Vandoorne would be a perfect fit at Toro Rosso and the Red Bull junior team should snap the Belgian up.

"I definitely think he's a Formula 1 calibre driver, and if I was at Toro Rosso, you have two open seats or you appear to have two open seats, I'd put Stoffel in, in a heartbeat," Brown explained to Motorsport.com.

"Stoffel's an outstanding race car driver. You know, ultimately, we look to the future and Lando's a future star. I think in a different environment, Stoffel may excel more with a better race car."

Vandoorne has struggled in his time with McLaren, being outperformed by Fernando Alonso consistently, but the team itself has failed to compete in the way they would have liked to.

"I think we've had a very poor race car for two years," Brown admitted. "Someone like Fernando can adapt quicker, he's got so much experience.

"Stoffel was very close to Fernando, a lot closer than, as Fernando commented, some other teammates.

"If I look at those (Vandoorne's) debut races, besides Bahrain (in 2016), which was an impressive debut, but in the 2017 season he was going to racetracks and losing practice sessions, and I'm not sure he ever got the opportunity to get into a groove."