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Stoffel Vandoorne speaks about the Mercedes Formula E race


Former McLaren F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne tested Pato O'Ward's No. 5 Chevy at Sebring in IndyCar on Monday. The 29-year-old Belgian is considering a race in IndyCar in 2023 after the end of his Formula E stint at Mercedes.

It took Arrow McLaren SP’s final rookie IndyCar test driver Nico Hulkenberg a little over a week to decide that the longtime Formula 1 driver’s first day in an Indy car would very likely be his last. Stoffel Vandoorne, the 29-year-old Belgian driver and the last to hit an IndyCar driver evaluation day at AMSP, says he has a lot more to think about after spending Monday behind the wheel of Pato O’Ward’s # 5 Chevy at Sebring I have spent internationally at the racetrack.

Vandoorne, the Mercedes Formula E driver who finished second in the championship in 2020, also has 41 F1 races ahead of him, with a second place in this year’s World Endurance Championship and an overall podium at the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans. Yet Vandoorne hiked across the Atlantic and into the IndyCar paddock in Laguna Seca in September to network with as many team bosses as possible, hoping to inquire about another series to add to his résumé. Given his F1 run with McLaren from 2016 to 2018, he quickly hit it off with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and soon agreed on an off-season test.

The driver, who is still under contract with Mercedes in Formula E in 2022 before the team withdraws from the championship, said it was far too early to speculate where he could drive in 2023, but one day in an IndyCar he made you want more.

“It was a great experience. I definitely had a very fun day in the car,” Vandoorne told IndyStar after setting the third fastest lap in a four-car test with Formula E team-mate Nyck de Vries (Meyer Shank Racing) had finished. , Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing) and Jack Aitken (Ed Carpenter Racing). “It’s definitely a car to drive and it’s difficult to steer. I struggled through corners with the steering wheel a lot, but most of all, I was happy.

“I had a really positive impression of driving these cars and felt comfortable from run to run and got even better as the day went on. We’ll see what the future holds, but I’m definitely checking out IndyCar. “

More from Sebring:Carpenter says the team had a “smooth day” with Aitken

In Nashville earlier this year, during a press conference announcing McLaren Racing’s intention to acquire a 75 percent controlling stake in Arrow McLaren SP from Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson, Brown stated that AMSP intends to have a third full-time car in 2023 , the team has since made it clear that it is currently working on putting together a part-season program in 2022 to drive expansion, attract the additional crew and technical staff, and test potential drivers to fill this role in the future.

The first of these drivers, Hulkenberg, drove parts of 10 seasons in Formula 1 up to 2020 and is currently the reserve driver for Aston Martin F1 for the season that ends next weekend. The 34-year-old German driver took part in a private IndyCar test with five cars with AMSP in October and ended with the slowest “best” lap time of the day. Less than two weeks later, Hulkenberg tweeted that he had decided “for personal reasons” not to pursue an IndyCar chapter with the team.

While it doesn’t offer the wide-open schedule to make running an IndyCar part-season easy for a part-season, Vandoorne’s Formula E calendar would offer some legitimate time slots to make a feeling period possible. Together with the St. Pete season opener and the Indy 500 (both unlikely debuts), the Mercedes Formula E driver will be on the road for four weeks between the Formula E races in Indonesia (June 4th) and Canada (July 2nd) what IndyCars races in Road America June 12th is a possible option.

While Ovale might not make the most sense of sense for his debut, his schedule would allow him to run in both IndyCar’s Iowa double-headers and WWT Raceway. The Music City Grand Prix (August 7th) and the races in Portland (September 4th) and Laguna Seca (September 11th) are also possible, with the Formula E season finale taking place in mid-August.

“So far I have no plans after that, so everything is wide open on my part,” he said. “In a way, that gives me a lot of opportunities in a lot of different racing series. I could continue in Formula E or I probably have chances in endurance racing as well as opportunities in IndyCar at a decision time in my career as to which path I want to take? “

More:McLaren and Zak Brown prove the lessons learned from the failure of the 2019 Indy 500

Vandoorne may have to wait and see how AMSP’s second straight season goes for O’Ward and his teammate Felix Rosenqvist after the tandem put together very different campaigns in terms of results in 2021. While the 22-year-old Mexican driver took three poles, two wins and a third place in the title hunt, Rosenqvist’s rookie year at AMSP was a step backwards after two seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing. The Swede only had two top 10 placements and eight placements outside the top 15.

With Vandoorne in the prime of his racing career and turning 30 in March, he said on Monday that he was not interested in taking on a new challenge where he wouldn’t be near the top from the start.

“I want to fight at the front right from the start and that takes a good team around you,” he said. “I think McLaren has shown a lot of promise over the last couple of years (in IndyCar). For me, that’s the deciding factor for my future – which package of competition I can compete in.

“Besides, I don’t want to come by for just a year and then do nothing. I would like to build a multi-year package. “

Email IndyStar motorsport reporter Nathan Brown at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.

The post Stoffel Vandoorne speaks about the Mercedes Formula E race first appeared on monter-une-startup.