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Vandoorne column: McLaren had top 10 pace for first time
In his latest column, McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne reflects on a positive, but ultimately fruitless, Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
Stoffel Vandoorne
Edited: Jul 13, 2017, 11:52 AM
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Stoffel Vandoorne
Vandoorne is contracted to a full-time 2017 McLaren race seat, replacing the outgoing Jenson Button.
We may not have come away from the Austrian Grand Prix with the end result of points that we wanted, but I think there were still a lot of positives that everyone at McLaren-Honda could take away from the weekend.
Starting from the first practice sessions, our pace was actually quite strong. Of course we were running the new 'Spec 3' Honda engine, but we were also expecting to go quite well because we know our chassis is a very good one.
Plus don't forget that Austria is a short track, with some slow speed and high-speed corners that were always going to suit our car a bit better. It was really just a case of fine-tuning the setup as we went through practice to prepare ourselves as best as we could for qualifying.
A lot of people were asking me about the 'Spec 3' engine, and how different it was from the 'Spec 2' used by Fernando.
To be honest, in terms of performance, there wasn't any significant difference from the cockpit and also data confirmed this feeling: there is still a lot of work to be done to fine-tune the settings before we can get the real benefit from it.
But at least we have had some updates from Honda now, and heading to Silverstone this week I think we will be able to extract a bit more performance from the engine.
The very start of the race went really for myself and Fernando, but unfortunately things got very complicated when a few cars ahead of us had bad getaways. There was a Renault that was slow away, as well Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, so avoiding all those people compromised us a bit in to Turn 1.
Then I saw the clash between Daniil Kvyat and Fernando Alonso at the first corner and I had to avoid it around the outside, which unfortunately didn't put me in a perfect position for the long run down to Turn 3. So it was a bit of a tricky opening lap.
Even so, I think we had the pace to be in contention for some points. When we were running in clear air our pace was very, very good – and I think it was one of the first times this year that we had the genuine speed to be able to run in the top 10 behind the Haas, Force India and Williams cars.
In the end, the fight for the points caught me out after our pitstop. We had just fitted fresh rubber and I was battling with the Renault for the final point, with Kimi Raikkonen coming up behind us.
I was pushing as hard as possible to stay in front of Kimi, so I wouldn't lose time with the blue flags, but unfortunately I took a bit too long to let him past and I got a drive-through penalty. It didn't cost us any position in the end, but it meant the fight for points was over.
This weekend is already the next race, and Silverstone is a very different circuit compared to Austria. It is much longer and this year Silverstone will probably be very different to the Silverstone we have known in the past.
A lot of the corners will become flat out and it will be a very, very quick circuit. So I don't think it will be an easy weekend for us.
As usual, though, we will try to optimise whatever we can with the car and try to extract the maximum out of it. Maybe with the British summer we could have some surprises and maybe have a bit of rain too which would be good.
I think our car is quite good, so it is great for the rain, and also when we have tricky situations, it gives us a good opportunity to do something different in terms of strategy, and it enables us to be in a more competitive position.
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