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Alonso backs Vandoorne despite his poor 2018 season

17:20, 25 Jul 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Fernando Alonso has come out in support of his McLaren teammate Stoffel Vandoorne after the Belgian's recent struggles in 2018. Whilst Alonso has scored the majority of McLaren's points this year, Vandoorne has been struggling a lot of the time and off of the pace.

McLaren will change Vandoorne's chassis this weekend after the team couldn't diagnose an aero anomaly compared to Alonso's car, but the Spaniard says that Vandoorne's credentials are more than good enough to earn his place in F1.

"I don't think it (Vandoorne's reputation) is going down, the car is what it is," he told Sky Sports.

"In Silverstone it was the same case, the car is underperforming. We as a team are trying to find the problem and to have both cars in the same condition and the same performance.

"He's shown his talent already. No need to prove (anything). Being champion in every single series before Formula 1 and he arrives now in a difficult car with some difficulties last year and this year as well. He's okay and he be will very close to the performance as soon as the car is delivering the normal performance.

"For his reputation, or for you guys (the media), you need to see the results before Silverstone or last year in terms of qualifying."

Whilst Vandoorne had been showing very strong pace in comparison to his two-time champion teammate, the British and German Grands Prix resulted in a huge eight and nine-tenths of a second gap between the two drivers, prompting the chassis change.

Although McLaren have admitted their chassis isn't up to the standard they had envisaged earlier in the year, Alonso is expecting "a lot of fun" this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.