Vandoorne "excited" to "still be part of F1" at Mercedes

Former McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne has found a new challenge in Formula E but he also has a job at Mercedes' F1 team as a sim driver, which the Belgian admits being exciting as he's still connected to F1 that way.

His two full seasons in Formula 1 didn't exactly go as people expected when he first came in. Vandoorne, a record-breaking Formula 2 champion, was hailed by many as a future F1 champion. He struggled to find his feet at McLaren, though, only showing flashes of his tremendous talent at times. 

In 2018, things got even worse for the 26-year-old, as he got out-qualified by his teammate Fernando Alonso on all 21 occasions. Again, he had a few good races here and there, but it simply wasn't good enough from him, especially from someone who has the tremendous talent he possesses.

He's moved on to Formula E now, where he drives for Mercedes works team HWA. Because of his ties at Mercedes now, he also got a job as Mercedes' sim driver for the F1 team, something which excites him.

“I’ll be doing the simulator work for them in the Formula 1 team," he told Formula1.com.

“That’s an exciting part for me as well, to still be involved in the F1 world and to be with the world champions. For me, it will be a very interesting move. I’m sure I can bring them a lot of fresh ideas, but also for me to see the differences there are, because I’ve only worked with McLaren in Formula 1. So it’s exciting for me as well to kind of have a bit of a fresh environment.” 

The Belgian also added that keeping involvement in the world of F1 could also be important for his career, should an opportunity arrive on the grid in the near future. After all, the same happened to Daniil Kvyat, who took a sim driving role at Ferrari after being axed by Toro Rosso in 2017 and now has a seat on the 2019 grid again.

“It’s definitely good to keep involved in the world because you never know what happens in the future," he explained.

"I think to be involved with Mercedes and to perform the work for them, it’s good that they will know exactly what I’m capable of doing. And we don’t know what the driver market is going to do in the future.

“It was a bit crazy this season and who knows what it will be next season. It’s hard to tell. So it’s good to be involved and to be prepared for anything that comes up.”