Stoffel Vandoorne: GP2 Champion, Formula E Winner and Peugeot Hypercar Driver

Stoffel Vandoorne is a Belgian racing driver from Roeselare who raced for McLaren in Formula One from 2016 to 2018. He later won the 2021-22 Formula E World Championship with Mercedes-EQ and now races sportscars for Peugeot in the FIA World Endurance Championship. His career also includes karting, single-seaters, GP2 and years as a reserve driver for several Formula One teams.

Who is Stoffel Vandoorne?

Stoffel Vandoorne, born 26 March 1992 in Roeselare, West Flanders, is a Belgian driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Peugeot. He is also a reserve and simulator driver for Aston Martin in Formula One, and he won the Formula E title in 2021-22.

His first taste of karting came at six, on a family trip with his father to a track in Kortrijk. The track owner handed him a mini-kart, and that started his racing life. His full name is Stoffel Jacques Luc Vandoorne.

A GP2 title, a Formula E crown and a long reserve career that kept him close to the top of the sport.

How did Vandoorne progress through karting and junior formulae?

Lack of money kept Vandoorne to three or four karting events a year at first, but he became Belgian KF2 champion by sixteen. He then won the F4 Eurocup 1.6 at his first attempt in 2010, and in 2012 he took the Eurocup Formula Renault title by ten points.

His car racing was helped by the steering wheel competition run by the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, which he won in 2009. The 45,000 euro prize money helped him start his car racing career in the F4 Eurocup 1.6. A place in the FIA Driver Academy followed in 2010.

In 2011 he moved to the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with KTR and finished fifth overall, with a podium at the Hungaroring. A year later he joined Josef Kaufmann Racing, where he won four races and took six podiums on his way to the title.

In 2013 he replaced Robin Frijns at Fortec Motorsport in Formula Renault 3.5. He ended as runner-up to Kevin Magnussen after four wins and ten podiums, one of them a victory at Spa-Francorchamps, his home track.

What did Vandoorne achieve in GP2?

Vandoorne joined ART for GP2 in 2014 and finished runner-up to Jolyon Palmer as a rookie. In 2015 he won the title at Sochi, finishing 108 points clear of Alexander Rossi with five feature race wins, twelve podiums and four poles.

His 2014 season began with a feature race win at Bahrain. He followed it with four consecutive pole positions and three more wins, at the Hungaroring, Monza and Yas Marina, plus six additional podiums. The rookie campaign set the tone for a championship-winning career in the category.

Several GP2 records still carry his name. He holds the series records for most wins, most feature race wins, most pole positions, most consecutive poles, most podiums, most points and most points in a single season. The series was rebranded as the FIA Formula 2 Championship at the end of 2016. In January 2014, while racing for ART, he was also named as a third driver for McLaren Formula One.

The 2016 campaign was run for Dandelion Racing in Super Formula, using Honda power. Vandoorne ended fourth overall, the best placing among Honda-powered drivers, with two wins and a pole at Fuji Speedway in wet conditions.

How did his McLaren Formula One career unfold?

Vandoorne joined McLaren's Young Driver Programme in 2013 and made his Formula One debut at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, replacing the injured Fernando Alonso. He finished 10th and was promoted to a full-time seat for 2017 alongside Alonso, a role he held until he left at the end of 2018.

In Bahrain he qualified 12th, ahead of Jenson Button, and finished 10th. Only Sebastian Vettel, at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, had previously scored points on debut as a reserve. The team confirmed his 2017 seat on 3 September 2016, when Button's departure was announced.

In 2017 he scored 13 points to Alonso's 17, though reliability problems meant one did not start and five did not finish in 20 races. He still reached the top ten in Hungary, Malaysia and Singapore. McLaren kept him for 2018, when he had three points finishes in the first four races.

The 2018 season lost momentum. He had eight points by the Japanese Grand Prix and then a long run without points between Azerbaijan and Mexico. He finished 16th in the drivers' championship, ahead of four other drivers, and was eighth on the Formula 1 Power Rankings after a battle with Esteban Ocon and Romain Grosjean in Abu Dhabi.

What was his role at Mercedes, Racing Point and Aston Martin?

After McLaren, Vandoorne worked as a simulator and reserve driver, including for Mercedes in 2019 and Aston Martin from 2023. He was not picked for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton tested positive, and in 2023 he tested Aston Martin's AMR23 at Spa.

Mercedes gave him a development role from 2019 to 2022. He drove in the 2020 Abu Dhabi Young Drivers Test alongside Nyck de Vries, and under an agreement between Mercedes and two teams he was also available as reserve driver for Racing Point in 2020 and for McLaren from 2020 to 2022.

In 2022 a positive Covid test for Daniel Ricciardo meant Vandoorne was not picked for the last pre-season test in Bahrain.

Aston Martin announced him as reserve and simulator driver for 2023, sharing the role with Felipe Drugovich. He stayed in that position for 2024 and 2025, and at the end of 2025 he took part in the Yas Marina test where he tried the Pirelli tyres for 2026.

How did his Formula E career develop?

Vandoorne moved into Formula E with HWA Racelab for 2018-19, scoring his first pole at the wet Hong Kong ePrix and a third place at Rome. He then joined Mercedes-EQ, where he won the 2021-22 championship in the final season of the team's Formula E programme.

His Formula E debut came only three weeks after he left Formula One, and he finished 17th. The 2018-19 season ended 16th in the standings with 35 points. He retired in Hong Kong with a driveshaft problem, and his podium at Rome was his first in the series.

At Mercedes-EQ in 2019-20, he took two podiums in the first two races, but a run of poor finishes left him well off the pace of Antonio Felix da Costa. After the season resumed in Berlin, he scored points in four of the six races and won the finale, which took him to second overall, 71 points behind the champion.

The 2020-21 season brought one win at the second race of Rome in 2021, along with two third-place finishes at Valencia and Berlin. He finished ninth in the standings, but the points from both Mercedes drivers gave the team its first Teams' Championship.

In 2021-22 he took pole at Diriyah, won at Monaco after dominating the second half of the race and built a 36-point lead over Mitch Evans before Seoul. Second place in the Seoul finale gave him the title and a second drivers' and teams' world championship for the outgoing Mercedes outfit.

What happened at DS Penske and Maserati?

Vandoorne joined DS Penske for 2022-23 alongside Jean-Eric Vergne, but the Gen3 chassis made the season difficult. He had no podiums, a first in his Formula E career, and finished 11th overall, 51 points behind Vergne. He left after two winless seasons, moving on to Maserati.

His only pole with DS Penske came at Sao Paulo. The team retained him for 2023-24, and he departed at the end of that season after two mediocre years.

For 2024-25 he joined Maserati MSG Racing alongside Jake Hughes. When the team was rebranded as Citroen Racing at the end of that season, Vandoorne and Hughes were replaced by Jean-Eric Vergne and Nick Cassidy.

Jaguar Racing gave him a reserve role for 2025-26 after he could not find a race seat that season.

How has his sportscar career developed?

Vandoorne first raced in the WEC in 2019 with SMP Racing, finishing third at Spa-Francorchamps and third at Le Mans. He was runner-up in the LMP2 class with Jota in 2021, and he then drove full-time for Peugeot Sport from 2024. His Peugeot contract was set to end after the 6 Hours of Fuji, before he returns to Formula E.

In 2019 he shared the No. 11 BR1 prototype with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin. He drove the opening stint at Spa in snow, hail and rain, and the trio finished third in the LMP1 class.

In November 2022 he was due to test the 2023 Peugeot Hypercar in Bahrain, but appendicitis ruled him out. In 2023 he stepped in for the injured Nico Muller at the 6 Hours of Fuji and finished seventh.

The 2024 season saw him race alongside Nico Muller and Loic Duval. In September 2025 Peugeot said his contract would expire after Fuji, but the team renewed him for 2026 the following month. He is set to leave the team after the Fuji round.

What do his main results look like?

Vandoorne's career has spanned several series, but his highest titles came in GP2 and Formula E. The table below summarises his main results by championship, from junior formulae through to the current sportscar programme.