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Formula One: 2018’s Dark Horse championship contender

By Asher Fair

AUSTIN, TX - OCTOBER 21: Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium driving the (2) McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team McLaren MCL32 on track during qualifying for the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on October 21, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX - OCTOBER 21: Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium driving the (2) McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team McLaren MCL32 on track during qualifying for the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on October 21, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) /
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With just one race left in the 2017 Formula One season and the championship already having been won, it’s time to look ahead to 2018. Which driver is a dark horse title contender?

Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen. Sebastian Vettel. Daniel Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas. Those are the five Formula One drivers that most people expect to finish in the top 5 in the final drivers standings in the 2018 season, and for good reasons.

But 2018 may be the season during which a dark horse driver emerges as a championship contender, or at the very least, a consistent factor at the front of the field during races and a factor toward the top of the standings all season long.

Which could might driver be? The answer may surprise you.

In 19 career Formula One starts, of which 18 have come this season, his rookie season, this driver has finished in the top 10 four times with a career-high finish of 7th place, which he recorded in consecutive races.

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Currently in 16th place in the drivers standings with 13 points, this driver is just 2 points behind his teammate, who is a two-time Formula One champion and sits 6th on the all-time Formula One wins list with 32 career victories.

That driver is Stoffel Vandoorne, who drives a Honda-powered car for McLaren.

Vandoorne is a 25-year-old Belgian driver who re-signed with McLaren for the 2018 season. But how could he possible be a dark horse championship contender next year?

McLaren uses Honda engines in their cars, and Honda engines are the least reliable and least powerful engines in the sport right now, so it stands to reason why Vandoorne doesn’t have any career finishes in a single Formula One race higher than 7th place.

However, McLaren has still had a solid aerodynamic package, and the team is switching from Honda engines to Renault engines next season. While Renault engines have recently had reliability issues of their own, they are far more reliable and far more powerful than Honda engines, and given the recent success of Red Bull Racing, they appear to be getting better and better, which could and likely will benefit Vandoorne. The question is, to what extent will it do so?

Next: Who is the greatest Formula One driver of all-time?

As it stands right now, Stoffel Vandoorne is barely behind his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso in the drivers standings, and Alonso, as referenced above, is a two-time Formula One champion with 32 career Formula One race wins to his name, which ranks 6th on the all-time wins list. So once Vandoorne gets a ride in a competitive car, who knows what might happen? Will he immediately become a championship favorite? Probably not. But he will definitely become a dark horse title contender.

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