Stoffel Vandoorne has set his sights on continuing his impressive start to the 2015 GP2 Series season after the summer break as he bids to win the Formula 1 feeder series title.
Vandoorne finished as runner-up to Jolyon Palmer in the 2014 championship, but was kept in GP2 by parent team McLaren so he could, in the words of racing director Eric Boullier, “win the championship as a boss”.
The Belgian driver has lived up to the team’s high expectations in the first half of the season, claiming four race wins and five further podium finishes to establish an 85 point lead at the top of the standings.
Despite enjoying such a sizeable lead, Vandoorne is not looking to ease off and play it safe in races. Instead, he has set his sights on claiming more wins in the remaining five rounds of the season.
“Of course we look at what the others do, but we mainly concentrate on our own job,” Vandoorne said. “I think that’s worked out pretty well since the start of the season.
“The good thing is that we keep on scoring quite big points every weekend. That’s the main target for the remainder of the season.
“I want to win some more races and then we’ll see who will challenge us in the end.”
Vandoorne heads to his home circuit of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in three weeks’ time following GP2’s summer break with hopes of avenging his defeat in last year’s race.
The ART Grand Prix driver was embroiled in a spectacular fight with Raffaele Marciello in the wet for much of the race, but could not beat the Italian driver and was ultimately forced to settle for second place.
“I came very close to the victory last year and just missed out two or three laps from the end,” Vandoorne said.
“Hopefully I will be able to take my revenge and win there this year. It would be a really good feeling to win for the fans and for the home crowd.”