Renault consider Vandoorne swoop

Stoffel Vandoorne could interest Renault, with the 2019 driver market starting to loom large in the minds of teams up and down the grid. Vandoorne's McLaren career has not been as successful as might have been anticipated, amid the team's struggles to produce a competitive car.

Fernando Alonso's DNF at the Monaco Grand Prix paused a rut which has seen Vandoorne finish behind his team-mate in the last eight grands prix in which they have both seen the chequered flag, dating back to last year.

Vandoorne said he felt he was "sacrificed" in order to help Alonso in Monte Carlo, as he went on to finish 14th.

Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr have helped Renault take fourth place off McLaren in the constructors' standings in recent weeks, although the French squad's Spanish driver has been tipped to return to Red Bull if Daniel Ricciardo departs.

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Although a permanent deal for the on-loan Sainz has been talked up, Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul has seen enough of Vandoorne, a GP2 champion in 2015, to be impressed.

"Do not say that Stoffel will definitely join Renault because it is not the case," he told La Derniere Heure.

"But he is a driver that we look at. When I wonder about the possible options, I take Vandoorne into consideration.

"I think his situation is quite difficult. I don't know the ins and outs, but sometimes a change of environment allows a driver to get the oxygen to bounce back.

"He was fast, talented, consistent in all of the lower categories and there is no reason for all that to disappear.

"But when you have Fernando next door it's complicated, especially in McLaren's circumstances of recent years.

"But he is a high level driver that we can look at in the future, depending on how our situation evolves."