Biography
For Stoffel Vandoorne, it was only really a matter of 'when' he'd race in Formula 1 than 'if'.
The young Belgian ascendance through the junior single-seater ranks has been utterly emphatic - and equally assured. Let's look back at his credentials: In 2013, at Monza, he stunned his championship rivals by winning his first-ever World Series by Renault 3.5 race. He followed it up a year later, in Bahrain, by winning his first-ever race in GP2. It's an absolutely unique double - no other driver has matched him.
In 2015, his second season in GP2, he stamped his authority on the championship with a performance so dominant that he rewrote the series' record books. He secured the title with four races remaining, rounding out his two GP2 seasons with more race victories, points and podium finishes than any other driver in the championship's history - which, lest one forgets, has also seen the talents of Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg.
Last year, he dovetailed his role as McLaren-Honda's test and reserve driver to race in Japan's hotly contested Super Formula championship - the country's most prestigious single-seater series. Driving for Honda entrant, Docomo Team Dandelion, Stoff won two races, including the prestigious season finale at Suzuka, and finished the championship in fourth position - just five points' shy of the winner, an almost unheard-of feat for a series rookie.
More notably, Stoffel also made his Formula 1 debut, deputising for Fernando Alonso in the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix. It was a last-minute call-up, which involved him flying overnight from a Super Formula test session in Japan to arrive at the Bahrain circuit hours ahead of the first Formula 1 practice session.
Despite his inexperience - he had never driven the MP4-31 before the race weekend - he performed flawlessly, out-qualifying team-mate Jenson Button, and scoring the team's first world championship point of the campaign.
For 2017, he will race full-time at McLaren-Honda opposite no less than Fernando Alonso, revered by many of his peers as the most complete racer on the grid. It's an indication of Stoffel's preparedness that he is unruffled by the magnitude of the task ahead of him.
