Vandoorne hopes 2017 rules bring back "normal" F1

Vandoorne raced in the Japanese Super Formula championship full-time in 2016 while also performing reserve and test driver duties for McLaren F1.

He stood in for Fernando Alonso behind the wheel of the McLaren MP4-31 in Bahrain and also tested the car during in-season test days at Barcelona and Silverstone.

Having been promoted to a McLaren race seat for 2017 - the year for which the new rules are to make cars faster and harder to drive - Vandoorne admits going from Super Formula to 2016-spec F1 made the latter feel not "normal".

"I remember actually coming from Super Formula and then jumping into an F1 car was quite strange for me," Vandoorne said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com. "I almost had to under-drive because I was pushing too much in the beginning."

"That is not what it should be like. You should be coming to F1 and being way under the limit – that should be normal.

"I hope we get a bit of that sensation back this year."

However, the Belgian was reluctant to make predictions on the quality of racing under the 2017 ruleset.

"[The new cars] feel very different to last year’s cars in the simulators. Every week I am coming in, there are some updates and it feels different every week, so I think until testing we won’t know exactly what it is going to feel like.

"I think, in terms of performance, it is going to be nice for the drivers. It looks a chunk faster.

"But if it will make the racing any better, is difficult to say for me."

He also reckoned the new rules wouldn't be a huge change for drivers in terms of competitiveness.

"I don’t think it will change very much because drivers, generally, once you get in a new car, they are usually pretty good at adapting pretty quickly in taking a car to its limits. So I don’t think it is a huge change.

"I still think experience will always benefit you a little bit, but I don’t think it is something bad that the regulations have changed now - for me it is an opportunity as well, and for McLaren-Honda to close the gap."