Hartley aims to make point in Mexican GP
Kiwi driver turning his attention to gaining championship points
Brendon Hartley wants to prove he belongs in Formula One by scoring a championship point at this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix. The 27-year-old made an impressive debut with Toro Rosso this week in Austin, finishing a respectable 13th after starting from the rear of the grid.
Having been retained for the second straight week, Hartley has now turned his attention to improving his performance even further and bagging a top 10 finish that would earn championship points.
“I think winning the race is optimistic,” Hartley told Radio Sport’s Martin Devlin. “People that follow Formula One will understand that not every car is capable of winning. As a driver, that is not what you want to be saying but that is the reality.
“A realistic goal or target would be to score a point. That would be huge. If I could score a point in Mexico, that would call for a big celebration. That has to be the goal. A difficult goal, believe me.
“Obviously long term, that is the dream — to win a Formula One grand prix — but for the moment, one step at a time: I would love to score a point.”
It was confirmed last night that Hartley would drive for Toro Rosso for the remainder of the season, with the Red Bull-feeder team deciding incumbent driver Daniil Kvyat wasn’t up to scratch.
Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko, a key figure at the two teams owned by the Austrian energy drink company, told German media the decision was final. Hartley will drive alongside Pierre Gasly.
“Kvyat will not return again. We don’t believe he can make the turnaround in the long term,” Marko said. “Gasly and Hartley are finishing the season, then we’ll see what happens.”
Toro Rosso has previously served as a springboard for four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, as well as Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Hartley’s promotion means he’ll race in Brazil on November 10-12 and in Abu Dhabi on November 24-26.
Hartley admitted it had been “quite a crazy few weeks for me — pretty surreal.
“The Formula One debut at Austin came somewhat out of the blue not only for me but for everyone else. No one saw it coming.
“It has been amazing. I went into Austin with a plan with how I wanted to handle it mentally and be relaxed and enjoy it and just take it as it comes. I am happy with how that played out.
“There are always things that I could have done better but that was the situation I was in — I was somewhat thrown in the deep end but on the other hand I felt ready for it.
“Now I have got an incredible opportunity to take my second grand prix and hopefully build on that first weekend and take a lot of those experiences that I gained from the first one and put them into practice.
“I have still got a big task ahead and expectation gets a little bit higher but I want to tackle this weekend the same. I want to enjoy it, I want to be relaxed and take it as it comes.
“I do have a few more goals this weekend because I think things have changed somewhat in the space of a week.”
Hartley will be back behind the wheel tomorrow morning with the first practice session.