Stoffel Vandoorne has had an accomplished motorsport career after winning multiple championships and now races in Formula E, so here’s all you need to know about the Belgian.
Vandoorne currently drives for Maserati in the all-electric championship after switching from DS Penske ahead of the 2024/25 season. The Belgian also took the title while driving for Mercedes in the 2021/22 campaign.
He took just one race victory during Vandoorne’s title-winning season in Monaco. But he was consistently finishing in the top five and took the Formula E title ahead of Mitch Evans.
Yet Vandoorne floundered in the 2023/24 season, finishing down in 10th place during his second and ultimately final season with DS Penske. Maserati then moved to sign the former McLaren F1 driver to partner ex-McLaren Formula E driver Jake Hughes in 2024/25.
Stoffel Vandoorne won the Formula E title in just his fourth season
After floundering in Formula 1 for two seasons alongside Fernando Alonso in an underpowered McLaren, Vandoorne found a new home in Formula E the following year.
The Belgian made his debut in the all-electric series with HWA Racelab in the 2018/19 season, during the team’s debut campaign, enjoying a technical partnership with Venturi.
Vandoorne partnered with the former DTM champion Gary Paffett in a difficult year for the pair in Formula E’s early years.
The former McLaren F1 driver endured a forgettable season, finishing 16th in the standings. He hit trouble in Marrakesh, retiring with suspension damage. This was quickly followed by a driveshaft failure in Hong Kong after starting on pole position.
The opening six races of the season remained point-less with four retirements in that time in a difficult start to life after Formula 1.
A better weekend on the streets of Rome followed with a drive to third place in Italy, sharing the podium with Evans and German driver Andre Lotterer. This podium was Vanoorne’s first since the final round of the 2016 Super Formula season when he won at Suzuka.
Vandoorne then truly began to flourish in the 2019/20 Formula E season as Mercedes entered the championship and he partnered with Dutchman, Nyck de Vries.
In a chaotic, Covid-19-affected year that saw six races at the Berlin ePrix to round off the season, the Belgian began to show signs of a Formula E champion in the making.
After a double podium at the season opener in Saudi Arabia, more challenging weekends in Mexico and Morocco followed, allowing Antonio Felix da Costa to clinch the title comfortably.
Despite missing out on the championship, Vandoorne won the final race of the season in Germany; he started on pole position and took victory ahead of De Vries in a Mercedes 1-2 finish.
The Mercedes driver failed to capitalise on his victory at the season finale in the 2020/21 season. A slump to ninth in the standings as his teammate De Vries won the title in the following year, which was marred by retirements and finishes outside the top 10 for Vandoorne.
But after three years of stuttering starts and moments of brilliance, Vandoorne put together a title-winning campaign with incredible consistency in the 2021/22 season.
The Mercedes driver took just one victory that year with a superb drive in Monaco, but brought himself into title contention by finishing outside the top 10 just once.
A mixed opening round to kick off the year in Saudi Arabia with second-place and seventh-place finishes. This was followed up by a drive to P11 in Mexico, finishing close to half a minute behind race winner Pascal Wehrlein.
Over the next three events, Vandoorne stood on the podium four times from five races, including his triumph in Monaco and two third places in Berlin.
The Mercedes driver’s closing five rounds of the year were unspectacular, but he took advantage of occasions when his title rivals Evans and ROKiT Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara failed to score.
He scored just a couple of second places in New York and London before taking the championship at the final round of the year in Seoul, South Korea.
Stoffel Vandoorne had two lacklustre years in Formula 1 at McLaren
Formula 1 is an incredibly difficult championship to break into, with just 10 teams and 20 cars. Multiple young drivers with glittering CVs have struggled before making a quick exit from the sport.
Vandoorne suffered from bad timing during his short F1 career at a McLaren team rooted to the back of the field with a frustrated Alonso as a teammate.
He dominated the GP2 Series in 2015 and triumphed over Alexander Rossi and Sergey Sirotkin, who both went on to race in Formula 1. There was no space for Vandoorne on the F1 grid at first, however, as he settled for a role as McLaren Honda’s test and reserve driver while racing in Super Formula.
He did make his debut in the championship in Bahrain, replacing the injured Alonso in Bahrain, a track he won at twice in his title-winning GP2 campaign.
The Belgian hit the ground running in qualifying, setting a 1:31.934 which was good enough for 12th on the grid ahead of his world champion teammate Jenson Button. He went on to score a point in the Grand Prix, as well, by finishing in 10th.
Vandoorne replaced the retiring Button for 2017, earning a full-time drive in F1. A difficult season followed, scoring points just three times with a best finish of seventh place in Italy and Singapore.
The McLaren Honda was woefully underpowered and suffered from constant unreliability and engine penalties. At the end of the year, the British team split from its engine partner and switched to Renault power for 2018.
The 2018 season proved to be a small step in the right direction for McLaren with their new power unit, improving to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
A bright start for Vandoorne also followed, but scoring points in the opening two rounds in Australia and Bahrain proved to be a false dawn. He scored points just twice more after keeping out of trouble in Azerbaijan and driving to eighth place in Mexico.
Vandoorne proved to be underwhelming in Formula 1 due to McLaren and Honda’s troubles, failing to produce moments of magic before leaving the series at the end of the year. He made way for the incoming Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s next young star, Lando Norris.
The Belgian is now the reserve driver for Aston Martin’s Formula 1 team after being a simulator driver for Mercedes.
So, with that in mind, here is everything that you need to know about Vandoorne…
How old is Stoffel Vandoorne? Where was he born?
Vandoorne is 32 years old and was born in Kortrijk, Belgium, on March 26, 1992.
How tall is Stoffel Vandoorne? What is his height in feet?
Vandoorne is 1.77m which is 5’8 in feet.
Stoffel Vandoorne’s Formula E career stats
Formula E titles: 1 (2021/22)
Formula E race entries: 87
Formula E wins: 3
Formula E poles: 8
Formula E podiums: 16