My early races weren’t good enough

London : Stoffel Vandoorne admits the early part of his 2017 Formula 1 season “wasn’t good enough” as he struggled to get up to speed amid McLaren-Honda’s reliability problems.

After a decorated junior single-seater career, including the 2015 GP2 title and a successful stint in Japanese Super Formula, Vandoorne was expected to star upon receiving full-time promotion to F1.

But the Belgian racer failed to escape Q1 at any of this year’s first five races, while star team-mate Fernando Alonso earned plaudits for plucky performances in a difficult car.

Vandoorne accepts he did a bad job in the first part of the season, but says his situation was worsened by his lack of experience coupled with chronic unreliability and the poor driveability of the McLaren-Honda package.

“I knew in the beginning it wasn’t good enough, but I also knew that I was dealing with a lot of problems,” Vandoorne said.