British GP | Stoffel Vandoorne: "I don't know how much it will take to go back to winning ways"
Vandoorne talks his contractual situation and his confidence level, McLaren's ongoing revolution and Eric Boullier ahead of the British GP.
Stoffel Vandoorne discussed the latest changes at McLaren, with Boullier stepping down on top of it. “I think ultimately it is no surprise, it has been a lot of pressure on our team lately, this is what happened and now we have a new structure in place, which is positive but will not change our results overnight. We have to be realistic. There is a lot of work ahead, but this is the first step towards a more positive future.”
“Zak called us (him and Alonso) yesterday before the news broke and we were very supportive of him, now he is been CEO for only a couple of months and he is being a bit more involved within the team.”
The process of restoring McLaren’s initial mojo and winning formula is not quantifiable in terms of time, as Vandoorne suggests. “You can’t transform an F1 team overnight, so it will require a bit of time. To put a time frame on that is extremely difficult, I don’t know how much it will take to go back to winning ways.”
Contract-themed questions did not come late. Asked if the team’s internal struggles affected his performance, Vandoorne downplayed the remarks from the media as going through difficult times is part of the routine in our category: “It doesn’t change much, F1 has always been like this. It’s the nature of the sport and those things happen.”
There has been some rumouring over the next changes regarding McLaren’s matrix structure, which could potentially see Peter Prodromou leaving. Stoffel did not deny that there will be more changes concerning the engineering department: “I believe the structure is the right one, it’s not the final structure because I think there will be more changes happening. I think the changes that are yet to come will be affecting a bit of everything. It’s up to the management to put the rest into place.”
More rumours are coming on the Belgian’s way, whose future at McLaren still floats in uncertainty. “I am confident about being here next year. It’s a time of the year in which everyone talks with everyone, before summer break everyone usually speaks about the drivers’ market. You can always improve, no matter what, I’m pretty sure I’ve done anything to convince the team.”