McLaren "hasn't progressed at all" in 2018

[Nergal]

 

Stoffel Vandoorne believes McLaren has not made any progress in Formula 1 this season after admitting it is “difficult to get a worse weekend” than the Belgian Grand Prix.

Vandoorne was last of the 15 finishers at Spa, having qualified slowest as both he and teammate Fernando Alonso lacked pace from the opening practice session.

McLaren’s slump means it has scored points in three of the last eight races, which has dropped it away from the Renault/Haas fight for fourth in constructors’ championship and closer to Toro Rosso and the Honda engine McLaren ditched for 2018.

Vandoorne said: “It’s difficult to get a worse weekend. We’ve seen the performance we have is very far away from being good.

“There’s not really an explanation.

“The reality is we haven’t progressed since the start of the year, we haven’t progressed at all compared to the others.”

Alonso has previously pointed out that McLaren has suffered from not bringing major updates this season, apart from in Spain.

McLaren has had trouble identifying aerodynamic stalls on its car in the windtunnel, which has stopped it fixing its problems.

The team's sporting director Gil de Ferran said the race, which Alonso was eliminated from after being sent airborne in a spectacular first-corner crash, was “a disappointing end to a difficult weekend”.

After qualifying, de Ferran had pointed out that although McLaren has primarily struggled with the aerodynamic performance of its MCL33 this year, Spa also exposed a major top speed deficit that has also contributed to McLaren’s struggles.

McLaren was 2.3 seconds off the pace in qualifying, its relative deficit almost a second bigger than what it was in the same session last year.

It is understood to be suffering from misjudged gear ratios, set at the start of the year, which at Spa left them bouncing off the rev limiter too early.

“There’s no shying away that it’s been a difficult year so far,” said de Ferran.