Vandoorne insists Super Formula campaign was worthwhile

The Belgian driver was placed with the Docomo Dandelion team in 2016 alongside his McLaren third driver commitments, finishing fourth in the Super Formula standings with two victories to his name.

However, GP2 Series boss Bruno Michel recently suggested in a Motorsport.com interview that Vandoorne wouldn’t have learned a lot during his year in Japan.

Nonetheless, the 2015 GP2 champion believes it was important for him to stay race sharp, and that the downforce levels of Super Formula cars also made for a valuable learning experience.

“It’s been a little bit up and down,” said Vandoorne when asked by Motorsport.com about his Super Formula season. “I think it’s been like that for nearly everybody in the championship.

“I think it was a good campaign in fast cars. It’s been a very good preparation for next year. The cornering speeds were very high. It was a very competitive series as well.

“I’m happy to have had the opportunity to do that this season. It’s a good experience to go through, very different to what you're used to in Europe.

"It's definitely better than sitting here at every race and do nothing all year. It keeps you sharp, you drive a very competitive car, you keep the thinking process of setting up a car and working with the engineers going.”

Vandoorne also stressed that getting an insight into how Honda’s engineers work will prove valuable ahead of his full-time F1 graduation with McLaren in 2017.

“In my case it was good to work very closely with Honda as well, to work with their engineers and understand the Japanese culture a little bit,” he added. “It kept me very sharp this season.”

Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov