Gasly’s promotion good news for Hartley

AUCKLAND: Pierre Gasly’s promotion to Red Bull is another positive sign for New Zealand Formula One driver Brendon Hartley.

The Frenchman was confirmed yesterday as Red Bull’s replacement for Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who will leave for Renault at the end of the season. Gasly will take that seat next year and join Max Verstappen in the senior squad.

That means there is a vacant seat at Toro Rosso for 2019.

The F1 silly season has been kind to Le Mans winner and world endurance champion Hartley, who is contesting his first full season in the sport’s highest echelon.

Red Bullcontracted driver Carlos Sainz jun has been confirmed at McLaren next year while Ricciardo’s move to Renault and the subsequent promotion of Gasly eases the pressure on Hartley to hold on to his seat in 2019.

In short, two drivers under Red Bull contract have left the organisation.

While it is understood Hartley has a twoyear deal with Toro Rosso, the team admitted earlier in the season it looked into replacing the New Zealander with McLaren junior driver Lando Norris.

At the time, Hartley had

made a couple of uncharacteristic driving errors while the team’s inability to give him a competitive car meant good results were not forthcoming.

But Hartley has shown significant signs of improvement in the past few races, often making the best of a bad situation and working hard to get his car further up the grid than it maybe deserves to be. — NZME