Kiwi driver revved up for F1 debut
Brendon Hartley has admitted he is under prepared for his Formula One debut, but is convinced he is in a better position to succeed than he was when he first tested with Red Bull as a teenager.
Hartley, 27, described his callup to the Toro Rosso team for the United States Grand Prix on Monday (NZ time) as a ‘‘whirlwind of a couple of weeks’’.
The Palmerston North driver said the opportunity came after he heard his Porsche team would be pulling out of the World Endurance Series in 2018 and he put in a call to Red Bull, which originally worked with Hartley when he was with the team in his late teens.
‘‘When it was announced that Porsche would stop endurance racing in the LMP1 for next year I called Helmut Marko and said ‘look, I am a different driver than what I was 10 years ago, I have learned a lot and if there is ever an opportunity I am ready’,’’ he said.
‘‘He didn’t say much. He just said he got the message and three months later he made the call.
‘‘This happened very quickly. I did not know about it much sooner than the press did so it has been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks.’’
Endurance racing has become Hartley’s forte since he was ditched by Red Bull in 2010 and he has a WEC title and 24 Hours of Le Mans crown to his name.
His last time in a single-seater was at the Festival of Speed in 2012 when he drove a former F1 car.
He was confident his experience in the WEC has set him up to be much better than his first flirt with F1.
‘‘I am a lot stronger than I was back then. I was not ready at 18-years-old. I like to think I am ready now. I am not very prepared for this weekend. I have not driven a single-seater since 2012, but I like to think the Porsche LMP1 has prepared me well,’’ he said.
He admitted he had lost his passion for the sport when Red Bull sent him away.
‘‘I had some success in the early days and won the Formula Renault championship and became the reserve [F1] driver. I had my first F1 test at 18-years-old and I guess I did not really deal with the pressure. I stopped enjoying it. I was not happy.
‘‘When the F1 dream stopped in 2010 I picked myself up, I found endurance racing. I have learned a lot from that experience.’’
Hartley turned to friends like Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo for advice on the car.
That was the key for Hartley, who has experience at the Austin, Texas track.
‘‘As a racing driving, when you have enough experience, learning a track can happen quite quickly. I think learning the car will be the bigger challenge; The big tyres the big down-force F1 cars have at the moment, they are setting lap records at every track that they go to so I am going to have a bit on my hands.’’
Hartley maintained the Toro Rosso team had not spoken to him about expectations for his performance in his debut. He said they had not talked about the chances of him staying with the team for the remainder of the season.
While he admitted he had been looking into joining Indycar, no decisions had been made and he was focussed on Monday’s race, he said.