Vandoorne gets McLaren upgrade for first time

ByAutoSport

Published 09/11/2017 at 16:49 GMT

Stoffel Vandoorne has confirmed he will get McLaren's latest upgraded front wing for the Brazilian Grand Prix, and expects the team's most competitive Formula 1 weekend of recent events.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Although Vandoorne tried out the new front wing concept briefly at the United States GP, it has been raced exclusively by his team-mate Fernando Alonso up until now.

A second package has now been completed for Vandoorne, and he is bullish about his Interlagos prospects after seeing Alonso's encouraging pace in recent races.

"I think they will help me a lot to extract a bit more out of our package," said Vandoorne of the upgrades.

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"It is definitely a good step forward.

"We have seen with Fernando's results, everything is performing as well as expected.

"Also the direction we have been going with them is quite encouraging for future developments because it opens up much more than what we currently have.

"Our car has been performing pretty well. We know our strengths, we know our weaknesses and there are still some areas we have to improve.

"But the concept we are developing now is opening up a lot of opportunities to improve.

VIDEO: McLaren's new front wing explained

"We should be strong in the corners here as well.

"There is no reason why we will not be competitive."

Vandoorne said one of the things he is most looking forward to about Brazil is the potential for a weekend without engine penalties so McLaren can show the proper potential of its car.

"In the last couple of events we have not really been in the game for qualifying, because we have been preparing for the race or had engine penalties," he said.

"Hopefully this weekend, if everything goes smooth, we will have a proper view on that and see where we end up.

"Hopefully we should be one of the closest with Force India and Renault.

"They have stepped up their game as well, so it will be a very tight battle with them."

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