McLaren is tangling a tantalising carrot in front of its junior drivers in 2018. According to Dutchman Nick de Vries, McLaren executive Zak Brown has promised that if he or Lando Norris wins the Formula 2 title this year, the prize will be an F1 seat.
"If I become the Formula 2 champion in 2018, then I will get a seat in formula one. It's spelled out in my contract in black and white and that's what Zak told me," de Vries told the Dutch publication Hp De Tijd.
He added: "The same conditions apply to Norris. Lando has some advantage, as his father has a good relationship with Zak and he pays for his career, but if I meet expectations in 2018, then I will be in formula one next season. Everything is in my hands," de Vries added. (GMM)
Sorry, I gotta call BS on this one. If Vandoorne delivers results, and if Alonso choses to stay at McLaren, I can't see McLaren giving one of the seats to De Vries or Norris and they can't really put them in another team either, except maybe Force India but they're more likely to take Russell or Wehrlein over a McLaren driver.
If this is true, and its a seat for 2019 he was promised, then McLaren is set for rough times in their camp. What happens if this is true, and he wins, yet Vandoorne perform admirably and Alonso remain? They aint ditchin' Alonso if he wanna stay, and are they gonna ditch Vandoorne just because they promised his seat to someone else? And if they cant, are they gonna try to give him to another team? McLaren dont have the kinda pockets or influence that Ferrari and Merc' have, so the chance of the other teams giving him a seat is low. And KMag had already been at McLaren 1 year when Renault later picked him up.
Well, it wouldnt be the first time McLaren promised a race seat without guarantees for one... That aside, it'll still cause issues. Unless McLaren can afford having multiple test drivers?
@calle I think we have precedent for Mclaren having multiple young guns in its arsenal. They can give them whatever title suits best. Test driver, reserve driver, development driver, etc. Say what you will about Mclaren (and there's plenty in the last few years), but I think they have a pretty good track record of keeping talent they want to keep and not sticking with subpar drivers. Alonso will deliver or overdeliver because that's Alonso. But Stoffel's seat I'd argue is potentially under threat if he's not pretty close to Fernando. Zak is pretty excited about Lando Norris, and for a good reason. He's probably the most exciting young talent right now.
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tangling? o_O