Stoffel Vandoorne: Reserve driver – a strange role

      In his time, Stoffel Vandoorne was a McLaren driver, but that coincided with a difficult period in the team's history when it fell from the group of leaders to unusually distant positions. Since then, he has not competed in Formula 1, but he remains in the paddock, fulfilling the duties of a reserve driver. Initially, in this capacity, he collaborated with Mercedes, and since 2023 – with Aston Martin – therefore, the professionalism and experience of the 34-year-old Belgian are still in demand. He demonstrates his racing skills in other series – in 2022, Stoffel won the title in Formula E and has been piloting the factory team Peugeot hypercar in WEC for the fourth season now.

      But here’s what he said about his role as a reserve driver for Aston Martin F1 in an interview with the official championship website: “It’s a strange role because you rarely get to drive the car. At the same time, you have plenty to do because you spend a lot of time on the simulator, participate in the race preparation process, and travel a lot since you attend most of the events. However, you could say that you are not allowed to the most interesting parts!

      Of course, I participate in all the meetings with the engineers that take place before and after each session. During the sessions, I observe what’s happening on the track from the garage or from the office at the base in Silverstone, where our engineers are located, and where we analyze the telemetry and video footage captured by the onboard cameras – by the way, it’s much more interesting to follow everything from there…

      When you are a reserve driver, you never know when the team will need your services, and since you sometimes have to get behind the wheel, the task is to carefully monitor the progress of all sessions to stay informed about everything that’s happening.”

      Stoffel has known Fernando Alonso for a long time, as they were teammates at McLaren for two seasons and therefore understand each other well when discussing professional topics: “We often discuss the feelings a driver experiences behind the wheel, the choice of settings, and I always try to share my impressions and honestly say what I think, although that doesn’t mean I’m always right. But I believe it’s important for drivers to hear an outside opinion, as engineers always look at their computer screens and base their recommendations on that information.

      But I look at everything from a driver’s perspective and draw my conclusions not based on the numbers the computer provides. For effective work, a reserve driver needs the right mindset, and my experience gained at different stages of my career helps me.

      I like Formula 1, I like these technologies, I enjoy working with engineers and the whole team. In my opinion, among all forms of motorsport, this championship still stands out for its maximum competitiveness, and we have the most advanced tools at our disposal, so the experience I gain here helps me in races in other series.

      Usually, on Fridays during the break between the first and second practice sessions, the team needs support from the crew working at the base, but mainly we have the opportunity to try out many different solutions on the simulator already after the second session, and the next day before the third practice, I return to the team with a list of components we tested.

      Typically, the work is based on requests from the team engineers, who direct them to the crew working on the simulator, and in the evening we deal with all of this, after which we report what we checked and what effect it has compared to the baseline settings of the car.

      Ultimately, the decision is still made by the racing crew engineers if they plan to change anything in the car, but at least we provide them with certain information based on which they act in one situation or another…

      Now drivers are much better prepared professionally than they were ten years ago, as there are more tests conducted, there is the TPC program (testing cars from previous years), and even their home simulators have become much more advanced.

      In general, they just train more before getting behind the wheel of a real racing car. From a professional standpoint, young guys are now much better prepared than their peers 15 years ago – everyone has coaches, and drivers have access to more extensive information, so they know much more.”