What a time to be alive if you’re a Stoffel Vandoorne fan, a week on from the Belgian winning season 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team. Vandoorne is unarguably the driver of the season and was deserving of the title given how consistent he had been throughout the 16 rounds. It was also a good day for his team, as they also secured the team's championship ahead of Rokit Venturi Racing.
Vandoorne’s Junior Career:
It’s no secret that Vandoorne had a superb junior career on his road to Formula 1 with championship wins in Formula 4 Eurocup 1.6 in his first season earning himself a promotion into Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0 for the following year. His first season ended with a 5th place finish with 1 podium and multiple points finish in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, at the same time he was also taking part in Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup where he finished in 3rd place with 8 podiums across the season.
For 2012, Vandoorne remained in the Eurocup Formula Renault series but changed teams leaving KTR and joining Josef Kaufmann Racing where he won the 2012 championship by 10 points battling Red Bull-backed Daniil Kvyat. out of the 14 races, the pair won 11 of them, finishing over 100 points ahead of 3rd in the championship.
Vandoorne then moved into Formula Renault 3.5 for the 2013 season racing for the Fortec Motorsport team replacing Robin Frijns, who moved up to GP2 and became a Formula 1 test driver. Vandoorne would ultimately finish runner-up to Kevin Magnussen but would still collect 4 wins and 10 podiums including victory at his home grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
He would then move up to GP2 joining ART by which time he had the backing from Formula 1 team McLaren as he joined the young driver program. At the season opener at Bahrain, Vandoorne would claim a maiden victory in the feature race. He would later go on to score 4 consecutive pole positions, and he would claim 3 wins, at the Hungaroring, Monza, and Yas Marina, and 6 additional podiums. In his rookie year, Vandoorne would finish runner-up to eventual winner Jolyon Palmer.
Vandoorne would stay with ART for the 2015 season and be partnered by Japanese racer Nobuharu Matsushita. After his impressive rookie season, Vandoorne headed into his second season as the main title contender. Vandoorne was just an animal in 2015, he racked up 5 feature race wins with 12 podiums and 4 pole positions. Vandoorne would go on to win the championship at the Russian Grand Prix by a massive 108 points over Alexander Rossi.
In 2016 Vandoorne was announced to be racing in Japanese Super Formula racing for Dandelion Racing. He ended up finishing 4th place in the final standings and being the highest-placed Honda-powered driver with 2 wins and a pole position at Fuji Speedway in wet conditions. 2016 also saw Vandoorne take the wheel of the McLaren standing in for the injured Fernando Alonso after a colossal crash in the race before. Vandoorne would go on to out-qualify team-mate Jenson Button with a 12th-place finish. Vandoorne would become the first reserve driver to score points on his debut with a 10th place finish, becoming the first reserve driver since Sebastian Vettel in 2007 at the US Grand Prix. Later in the year, at the Italian Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Button wouldn’t continue racing and that Vandoorne would replace the Brit to partner Alonso in the McLaren.
Vandoorne’s rookie season was ok, nothing spectacular but it was hard to show his true speed given how McLaren was during a rocky period with Honda. Vandoorne ended his rookie season with 13 points compared to team-mate Alonso’s 17 points. The reliability and performance of the car were horrendous, Vandoorne suffered a DNS and 5 DNFs throughout the 20-race calendar. There were also some standout results with the top 10’s in Hungary, Malaysia, and Singapore. Vandoorne was retained for the 2018 season again partnering with Alonso. 2018 was a hard season for Vandoorne to show what he had pace-wise given Alonso never really had outstanding results in the same car. There was also a rumour going around after the German Grand Prix that Vandoorne had a worse car compared to Alonso. The MCL33 was so inconsistent it would have excessive drag, making the car slower on the straights, and during the mid-season, the chassis started to develop a problem which meant that the car wasn't generating the right amount of downforce. To be fair to Vandoorne, in a year of frustration he never showed his frustration with the results and the car performance.
After being retained for the 2018 season, McLaren proceeded to end their contract with Honda and form a partnership with Renault. Vandoorne’s start to the season was solid with points scored in 3 of the first 4 races but it would be some time before he next scored points and by the Japanese Grand Prix rumours started flowing of Vandoorne being replaced for the 2019 season. Mexico was the next time Vandoorne would score his next points, the last time he scored points was at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Towards the end of the 2018 season, there felt like an acceptance that he was going to lose his seat as we saw more battles with cars, especially at the season finale in Abu Dhabi when he battled Esteban Ocon and Romain Grosjean.
For 2019, Vandoorne made the move to the all-electric series Formula E racing for HWA Racelab alongside Brit Gary Paffett. There wasn’t much time for Vandoorne to rest after a long, grueling season in F1 as the Formula E series started 3 weeks after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It would take Vandoorne only 5 races to achieve his first pole position at the Hong Kong E-Prix but sadly his race ended early with a driveshaft problem with 18 minutes left. His first podium came at the 7th round at the Rome E-Prix but once he crossed the finish line his car broke down with a driveshaft failure. Vandoorne finished 16th place out of 25 drivers which isn’t that bad given he had multiple DNFs but did finish with 5 points finishes in the 13 races.
The 2020 season saw Mercedes-EQ take over the reins of HWA Racelab and saw a new team-mate for Vandoorne in the form of F2 winner Nyck De Vries. Vandoorne’s season started with a couple of podiums at the Diriyah E-Prix with back-to-back 3rd-place finishes. The season would take a few months off due to the Covid pandemic which forced Formula E to think on its feet on how to finish off the season and that was to have 6 races in 9 days on 3 different Berlin circuit layouts. Vandoorne would score his first win of the series in the season finale securing the first Mercedes 1-2.
Vandoorne and De Vries would remain as teammates for the 2021 season and it would be a case of what could have been. Vandoorne had no luck throughout the entire season but there were also times when the package of the Mercedes-EQ didn’t suit the circuit. Vandoorne would score 3 podiums including 1 win in race 2 of the Rome E-Prix doubleheader. His 2nd podium came at the race after in race 1 at Valencia after being disqualified from qualifying due to a wrong input tyre number. The race will go down as a mess as you had about 15 drivers run out of energy on the final lap which allowed Vandoorne to take advantage and finish 3rd behind De Vries and Nico Muller. His third podium came at the season finale at Berlin with a 3rd place finish after starting on pole in which we saw Nyck De Vries win the world championship and Mercedes win the team championship.
2022 saw Vandoorne have his best season in motorsport since winning his GP2 title in 2015 which would see the Belgian driver win the championship in his final season with the team as Mercedes would be pulling out at the end of the season. Vandoorne went on to win 1 race in Monaco but would go on to claim 8 podiums and would score points in 15 of the 16 races. The only race he failed to score in was Mexico when he got spun around in the stadium section at the end of the race. Vandoorne ended up winning the title by 33 points ahead of Mitch Evans. Vandoorne also had the most points scored in a championship with 213, mainly down to the new qualifying format that was introduced to allow for a more fair championship battle.
The secret to Formula E success
Just like in most forms of motorsport, consistency is key and no one has been as consistent throughout the year as Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgian has scored points in 15 of the 16 rounds. When Vandoorne scored points he was scoring top 5 finishes there were only 3 races where he finished lower than P5. Mexico where he didn’t score points, Diriyah race 2, where he finished P7, and Marrakesh where he finished in P8 after starting P20 which compared to his results from the previous year was a stark improvement throughout the season.
Another secret is having a good crew around the driver starting with the race engineer. Going into the 2022 season, Vandoorne had a new race engineer with Stephen Lane (furthest on the right) coming in from Envision Racing to replace Marius Meier-Diedrich. Lane has been a race engineer for Sam Bird and most recently Nick Cassidy and has always had a calm, relaxing voice over the radio and can give the driver the information they would want to hear at the right time. It’s just a shame that with the arrival of McLaren, the Vandoorne and Lane partnership will be split up after a successful season together.
Confidence is massive in any form of life but in racing it is critical and the difference in confidence in Vandoorne has been massive. In the 2021 season, Vandoorne would just have no luck at all which ultimately prevented him from taking the challenge to his team-mate and other title rivals. It just felt that no matter what Vandoorne would do, lady luck wasn’t on his side. Race 2 of the London E-Prix in 2021 when comfortably in the lead of the race and a trick from the Audi Sport Abt Schaffler team moved Lucas Di Grassi into the lead of the race under a safety car after being down in P7 meant that Vandoorne got screwed over because of it and then had his race ended by Oliver Rowland after the Brit locked up and went into the side of Vandoorne’s car after Rowland’s engineer was speaking to him in the braking zone.
Car performance is also crucial to success in Formula E and also energy battery management. Mercedes powertrain has always been a top 3 powertrain and at the Diriyah E-Prix, they had the fastest powertrain in both races whether it was in the back of the Mercedes-EQ or the Rokit Venturi Racing. Mercedes would win 3 races with Vandoorne taking 1 in Monaco and De Vries would take 2 in Diriyah race 1 and Berlin race 2. Venturi would take 5 race wins, Di Grassi taking 1 win and Eduardo Mortara taking 4 wins.
Vandoorne’s standout moment:
Stoffel Vandoorne has had some standout moments, the win in Monaco, pole position in the season opener in Diriyah, the recovery in both Berlin races after slipping back down the order at the start of the race and then coming back to finish 3rd but the one standout moment was the incredible recovery in Marrakesh.
Vandoorne qualified the slowest of all the drivers, apart from Antonio Gionvinazzi and Andre Lotterer who were both penalised, so it meant that the Belgian would start in 20th place. Mercedes-EQ took the gamble of changing the brakes from the end of the 2nd practice to the start of qualifying and it was a gamble that didn’t work as Vandoorne qualified slowest in group qualifying. This had the potential to derail Vandoorne’s championship momentum, but it wasn’t the first time that the brakes were bothering him. It wasn’t the first time that the brakes had been causing problems for the driver, the issue that was causing the problems was the split in material which was causing a difference in temperatures.
Starting on the penultimate row of the grid meant that Vandoorne could have easily been involved in an accident but wisely took it easy and made it around turn 1. At the end of lap 1, Vandoorne remained in P20 but it was clear what the tactic was for Vandoorne which was to play the long game and save as much energy as possible at the start of the race and then get past the drivers in the latter stages of the race.
10 minutes into the E-Prix, Vandoorne found himself up into P15 and not a million miles away from the points without taking any of the 2 attack modes.5 minutes later and Vandoorne finally took his first attack mode after moving into P14, the next victim was Robin Frijns who he dispatched easily for P13 and instantly was on the back of the Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein. Vandoorne’s race pace was incredible and that is something that he had shown throughout the entire season but qualifying on occasions would hinder his starting position
22 minutes to go and Vandoorne activated his fan boost to try and overtake Alexander Sims for P11 which he does successfully putting him 1 place off the points-paying position, next up was Sam Bird. 17 minutes left of the E-Prix and Vandoorne took his remaining attack mode which left him 4 seconds off Bird in P10.
6 minutes left in the E-Prix and Vandoorne made his move into the top 10 with a move on Oliver Askew with Bird still the car ahead. 2 minutes remaining and Vandoorne finally got past Bird for P9 and next up was the struggling Jake Dennis.3 laps remained and Vandoorne was able to get past Oliver Rowland for P8 when there were 2 laps to go.
At the chequered flag, Vandoorne crossed the line in P8 starting from P20 and was easily driver of the day (if that was ever a thing in Formula E) but he did ultimately lose his championship lead to Mortara and found himself down in P3 behind Jean-Eric Vergne and 14 points off the championship lead which I bet if you offered that to Vandoorne at the start of the race he would have taken it.
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