Buxton: Vandoorne deserves a second chance

Formula One's digital presenter Will Buxton has pleaded for Stoffel Vandoorne to get a second chance in Formula One in his latest column, as he believes the former GP2 champion has more than enough talent to make it in F1.

Vandoorne is a polarizing driver. While his past suggests that the Belgian is a supreme talent, it can't be denied that the 26-year-old has been sub-par this season, to say the least. He's the only driver on the grid yet to out-qualify his teammate, Fernando Alonso, after 14 attempts.

His debut, as Buxton points out as well, was amazing, as he flew over last-minute to substitute for Alonso in Bahrain, and he out-qualified Jenson Button immediately and scored McLaren's first points of the 2016 season.

"His Formula 1 debut was equally as impressive as had been his GP2 arrival," Buxton writes on the Formula One's website.

"To those who knew him, to those who had watched his ascent through the junior formulae like me, there was no shock at his performance.

"Of course, he’d done what nobody expected.

"Ironically, that’s exactly what you expected of him - that’s just what Stoffel did."

So, how has he landed in the uncertain position he currently finds himself in?

"Perhaps the answer lies in his team.

"McLaren has had a high turnover of drivers in recent years and has built up a reputation, whether fair or not, as being unforgiving on youth.

"To Stoffel Vandoorne’s story we could easily add the names of Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez and Heikki Kovalainen from the last decade alone.

"One wonders whether Vandoorne will become a Kovalainen, and eventually fade out of the sport, or whether he, like both Perez and Magnussen before him, will use his experience as the foundation stone of a rejuvenated existence as a racer and as a man.

"There is every chance that all he needs is a change of environment to allow that mighty talent that many recognise exists within him to break through.

"Is he the great talent of a generation which so many of us believed him to be?

"Perhaps the greatest sadness of all is that, should he fail to find a way to continue his Formula 1 journey into 2019, we may never get to truly discover the answer.

"I’m hoping he does."

Would you like to see Vandoorne get another chance in the F1? Buxton raises an excellent point about Magnussen and Pérez, two drivers who didn't come good either until they left McLaren in their early years. Maybe that's the case for Stoffel as well. Who will take a flyer on him?