claiming the 2021\u201122 championship with Mercedes<\/a> and finishing runner-up in 2019\u201120 to Antonio Felix da Costa.<\/p>\nHis 2024\/25 campaign with Maserati was highlighted by a standout Tokyo victory, the team\u2019s sole win in the GEN3 Evo era.<\/p>\n
With Maserati set to be replaced by Citroen next season, Vandoorne has now secured a new role as reserve driver for Jaguar TCS Racing for Season 12, alongside long-serving simulator and reserve driver Tom Dillmann.<\/p>\n
Vandoorne also remains without a full-time FIA World Endurance Championship seat for 2026 after a late twist in WEC silly season.<\/p>\n
A planned move to Genesis Magma Racing fell through over Formula E commitments, and Peugeot \u2014 which had initially planned to replace him \u2014 has now re-signed him for a third consecutive season in the 9X8 Hypercar.<\/p>\n
While he won\u2019t race at next month\u2019s Bahrain 8 Hours, with Theo Pourchaire taking his seat, he will remain part of Peugeot\u2019s roster beyond 2025.<\/p>\n
Across 22 WEC races, Vandoorne has claimed eight podiums, including a second-place finish in the 2021 championship with Jota and a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2019 for SMP Racing.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Vandoorne acknowledged his 2026 plans are still taking shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working on a few different plans, different scenarios,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing is having a short-term view, but also the long-term view.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, yeah, we\u2019ll see how that is going to pan out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of his racing commitments, Vandoorne remains deeply involved in Aston Martin\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
He attends pre-event meetings, debriefs, and works closely on the simulator to help fine-tune setups, all while supporting the drivers, the broader team, and staying ready to step in if needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is important for us is that we\u2019re putting together a strong group of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some very competent people within the team right now and we\u2019re hopefully going to start seeing some of the results of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That perspective also extends to his interactions with Aston Martin\u2019s race drivers.<\/p>\n
On working with Fernando Alonso again, his McLaren teammate between 2017 and 2018, Vandoorne said it had been a similar but different experience.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/XPB_950203_HiRes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Vandoorne with Alonso during their time at McLaren. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s still got the same motivation,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he probably changed his approach a little bit of how he\u2019s working with teams and obviously he\u2019s got a bit more experience as well. How to deal with certain situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a little bit different than he used to be back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also praised Lance Stroll\u2019s work ethic and progress, adding that the pair have a close bond.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk a lot through the weekends,\u201d Vandoorne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re kind of more a similar age and we kind of drove or started Formula\u202f1 around a similar time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kind of have a few more things in common and yeah we\u2019re just trying to talk about a lot of stuff. About his feelings in the car. I try to kind of add my comments to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cLance is a hard worker. So just got to try and make the car a bit quicker at the moment and hopefully we\u2019ll see the results soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 rules shake-up presents both a challenge and an opportunity for Aston Martin, and Vandoorne sees the team approaching it with measured optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a little bit of an unknown for everyone to be honest at this stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure, the cars are going to feel quite different. The regulations are very different.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see some big surprises across the grid. But it\u2019s kind of all up in the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne in Formula 1 is it won\u2019t change from one day to another. You need a bit of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you look over the last couple of months, the people that we brought on board, I think it\u2019s going in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we start seeing some of the results from that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stoffel Vandoorne said he has enjoyed working alonside Alonso and Stroll at Aston Martin. Image: XPB Images As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2495,64,63,817,845,813,816,10310,85,151675],"class_list":["post-257186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lance-stroll","tag-sports","tag-stoffel-vandoorne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Vandoorne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/XPB_1366830_HiRes.jpg\")