Why McLaren-Honda Had to Replace Jenson Button with Stoffel Vandoorne for 2017

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 16, 2016

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Jenson Button finished a lapped 14th in the 2016 season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, but far more important for him was the result on the other side of the McLaren-Honda garage.

Fernando Alonso's collision with the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez on Lap 17, which saw the Spaniard slam into the outside wall of Turn 3 before rolling repeatedly in the gravel trap, had ensured the second year of the renewed partnership had got off to a spectacular, if not exactly successful, start.

Despite the sheer violence of the crash—Alonso experienced "a peak impact force of 46G" having glanced Gutierrez's rear-left wheel at 305 kilometres per hour, per motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble—the two-time world champion was relatively unharmed in the incident.

But as he clambered out of his crumpled car, which was upturned against the crash barrier, hobbled away from the wreckage and paused to rest his hands on the grass-stained knees of his race overalls, it soon became evident all was not well.



And that McLaren might finally have the excuse—or rather, the opportunity—they had been looking for.

As reported by BBC Sport's Andrew Benson, the team had regarded Stoffel Vandoorne as a future race driver and potential world champion since he was first confirmed as McLaren's reserve driver at the beginning of 2014.

His title-winning GP2 season in 2015, when he became the most dominant champion of a series once conquered by drivers of the calibre of Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean, had only crystallised that impression.

So when Alonso told an FIA press conference ahead of the next race in Bahrain how "a small pneumothorax on the lung" and "some rib fractures" would prevent him from competing, there was no need for McLaren to hurriedly sign a random journeyman on a short-term contract as, f...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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