Adam Cooper F1

McLaren has confirmed that Stoffel Vandoorne is on standby to drive in the Chinese GP, pending an FIA medical check for Fernando Alonso on Thursday morning.

Vandoorne travelled to Shanghai on Tuesday, on the same plane as team boss Eric Boullier.

“Once again, Stoffel will be on standby until Fernando has his routine meeting with FIA doctors on Thursday,” said Boullier. “And until then we will be readying ourselves as normal. Fernando has been recuperating at home and training as usual, and we, like him, hope to see him back in the car. We’ll accept the outcome – whatever that may be – and plan accordingly.”

Meanwhile Alonso said: “It was disappointing to be told I couldn’t race in Bahrain, but I fully respected the decision of the FIA medical team. While I hope I’ll be back in the cockpit on Friday, until I get the all-clear from the doctors to race – whenever that may be – we cannot assume anything, but I’m continuing to prepare for the race weekend as normal.”

Stoffel Vandoorne enjoyed a troublefree first day as a McLaren race driver in Bahrain, finishing FP2 in a solid 11^th place.

Vandoorne only arrived in Bahrain this morning after an overnight flight from japan, but he’d used at least part of the flight to do some homework.

“Eric [Boullier] called me a bit earlier this week that Fernando still had to pass the FIA tests,” said Vandoorne. “We booked a flight a day earlier just in case. In the end I got the call that I had to drive the race anyway.

“I got the call yesterday evening when I was about to leave Japan. From then on things started to get a little bit hectic. I had a lot of calls with all the McLaren engineers, they sent me all the files I had to know with all the information about the steering wheel, operationally before and during the race, about what we can and cannot say, what we have to do. I’ve spent my time well on the plane. I think today went very well after a night’s sleep. Thinking about tomorrow, I feel very confident about it.”

Vandoorne was happy with progress: “It’s definitely been great. I wasn’t expect to drive this weekend, but in the end I’m very happy for this opportunity. First of all I’m gonna try and do as good a job as possible for the team. I feel 100 percent ready for this. I think today was a very good day for me. I haven’t driven this car before but I quickly felt comfortable in the car.

“I progressed quite a lot through FP1 and quite a good feeling for FP2 as well. Most important for us was to do a lot of laps, we’ve done a lot of pitstops, practice starts, the operational stuff really. All those things I have to learn.

“I know a lot of the guys around here, so it makes my life a little bit easier to go and work with them. It’s definitely never an ideal situation to just jump in the car without any testing but so far this Friday it’s been very good during both practice sessions, feeling more and more comfortable. I think tomorrow that progression is going to go forward.”

Fernando Alonso has been ruled out of the Bahrain GP as a result of injuries sustained in his Melbourne crash – and the former World Champion will be replaced by McLaren third driver Stoffel Vandoorne for the rest of the weekend.

Alonso complained of a swollen knee and sore ribs after the accident, and following an FIA medical examination in Bahrain today he was ruled out because of the latter. Last year he missed the Australian GP as a result of his Barcelona testing accident.

An FIA statement said: “Following an examination undertaken this morning at the Bahrain International Circuit Medical Centre, it has been decided that McLaren Honda F1 Team driver Fernando Alonso should not take part in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Two sets of chest CT scans were compared and it was decided on safety grounds that there was insufficient resolution of the signs to allow him to compete on safety grounds.”

It added: “A repeat chest scan has been requested before the Chinese Grand Prix and the results will be considered before allowing him to race there.”

Vandoorne was in Japan for a Super Formula test when he got the news that he will be racing this weekend, and he duly rushed to the airport. He said on Twitter: “About to board for Bahrain, a bit earlier than expected but so much looking forward to it! Will do my very best for the team.”