Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso has offered his support to under-fire McLaren teammate Stoffel Vandoorne following a difficult 2018 season.

It has been a frustrating season for the previously highly-rated Vandoorne, having only recorded eight points to Alonso's 44 after the opening 12 races, and has also failed to out-qualify his Spanish teammate.

That has led to speculation Vandoorne could be replaced at the end of the season but his more experienced McLaren partner believes that his previous F1 teammates were significantly more behind him than the Belgian currently is.

Alonso even took the opportunity to fire a sneaky shot at Kimi Raikkonen, who was outqualified by the two-time world champion in 16 of the 19 races during their spell together at Ferrari in 2014.

“I think it’s difficult to beat me,” Alonso said, as per Crash. “He always has to be a little bit behind. But if you see previous teammates, they were a lot further behind than Stoffel. Like in 2014 or something like that, it was six or seven-tenths to Kimi every race. He’s less than that now.”

Following his apparent struggles with the McLaren MCL33, Vandoorne took on a new chassis for the Hungarian Grand Prix and had been running inside the top 10 until he was forced into retirement with a gearbox issue.

Alonso was quick to stand up for him, though, insisting that he has been let down by an underperforming car.

“I don’t think his reputation is going down,” he insisted. “The car is what it is. The car is underperforming. We as a team are trying to find the problem and to have both cars in the same conditions, with the same performance. He has shown his talent already. There’s no need for proof.

“Being a champion in every series before Formula 1, right now in a difficult car with some difficulties last year – and this year as well. He’s OK. He will be very close in performance as soon as the car is delivering the normal performance.

“There’s nothing I need to say to him,” he added. “For his reputation for you guys, you need to wait and see, or see the result before Silverstone or last year in terms of qualifying.”

With this glowing endorsement from Alonso, it should now be very interesting to see how Vandoorne will respond in the next few races.