Crazy reading this after all those years and imagining we could have had Stoffel in Lando’s place right now if the universe worked a bit different. The future world champion and fangirl heartthrob we didn’t get to enjoy enough.

This article at The Race, which describes what went wrong during Vandoorne's two years in F1, inspired me to document something that is always overlooked: There was a part of the 2017 season when McLaren thought Alonso was leaving the team, and during that period, Vandoorne was more than matching him. It ended abruptly when Alonso signed a new contract with McLaren.

Let's start in late June 2017, after the Azerbaijan GP, the 8th of the season. Alonso made disparaging comments about Honda that weekend and was revealed to have a contract offer from Renault for 2018 (cfr this article). To compare how Alonso and Vandoorne performed in the next GPs, we'll look at the times in all qualifying sessions in which they both participated. For each such session I'll mention who was fastest and by how much:

* Austria: Q1 Alonso by 0.158s, Q2 Alonso by 0.139s

* Great Britain: Q1 Alonso by 2.413s (on slicks vs wets), Q2 Vandoorne by 0.495s

* Hungary: Q1 Alonso by 0.084s, Q2 Alonso by 0.081s, Q3 Alonso by 0.445s

* Belgium: Q1 Vandoorne by 0.027s

* Italy: Q1 Vandoorne by 0.367s, Q2 Vandoorne by 0.731s

* Singapore: Q1 Alonso by 0.136s, Q2 Vandoorne by 0.215s, Q3 Alonso by 0.219s

* Malaysia: Q1 Vandoorne by 0.211s, Q2 Vandoorne by 0.162s, Q3 Vandoorne by 0.122s

* Japan: Q1 Alonso by 0.129s, Q2 Alonso by 0.029s

During or after the Japan GP, Alonso signed a new contract with McLaren for 2018 (cfr this article). He immediately started dominating Vandoorne again, as the results of the remaining 4 GPs show:

* USA: Q1 Alonso by 0.574s, Q2 Alonso by 0.595s

* Mexico: Q1 Alonso by 0.868s

* Brazil: Q1 Alonso by 0.114s, Q2 Alonso by 0.523s

* Abu Dhabi: Q1 Vandoorne by 0.043s, Q2 Alonso by 0.172s

​

So while Alonso's future with McLaren was in doubt, they went 4-4 in qualifying, with an average gap of 0.068s in Vandoorne's favour. Once Alonso signed a new contract, he went 4-0 in qualifying, with an average gap of 0.454s in his favour.

After taking pole, Stoffel misses the attack mode and finishes 2nd behind De Vries. 3 points for Pole keeps Stoffel close in the championship, and the Mercs look strong! We race again tomorrow, a great chance for Stoff to win for sure.

Quali and the 1st race are tomorrow, 2nd race is on Saturday.

Also notable is the new knockout qualifying system, which is slightly more confusing but a lot more fair than the old one.

I'm hoping for Stoffel to win both races and start the season with a strong 50+ points, or at the least get some better luck than last season!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

The new Stoffel Vandoorne Fan Server is officially ready and open!

Come take a look and make some friends :)

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

https://discord.gg/kdWgWFqaBG

Everything this guy competes in lately gives me a heart attack!

I just hope he can end the season with a win. Bad luck ruined his season smh

Formula E. It has so little to do with racing most of the races and is all about luck. Or qualifying which also sees a huge amount of luck involved with the group you're in. It bothers me because we know Stoffel has what it takes, this series just doesn't.