Don’t panic, says Hartley
Brendon Hartley acknowledges the Formula One driver market is currently a cut-throat world but the under-pressure Kiwi is not panicking just yet.
Hartley is confident his fortunes can turn ahead of this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix and remains optimistic of being one of Toro Rosso’s two drivers next season.
With just two championship points to his name and a string of underwhelming results so far in 2018, Hartley is obviously under some pressure to retain his seat but he’s prepared to fight for it.
‘‘One or two good races and the headlines will be very different. I’m still aiming to be on the grid for next year,’’ Hartley told Newstalk ZB.
‘‘I have a contract for next year, obviously things can change very quickly.’’
With five races left in the season following the Russian Grand Prix, Hartley desperately needs at least one statement performance and believes it is possible despite the Toro Rosso team still not receiving its latest upgrades.
‘‘There’s been too many times where there’s been potential and it just hasn’t worked out, so I’m still keeping the faith so to speak,’’ Hartley said.
The current movement in the driver market for 2019 has raised more uncertainty around the New Zealander’s hopes of retaining his seat.
‘‘It is a cut-throat world, the driver market has been particularly unsettled the last few months,’’ Hartley said.
He cited Kimi Ra¨ikko¨nen switching from Ferrari to Sauber in a swap with Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso moving to Indycar, Daniel Ricciardo leaving Red Bull to join Renault, Antonio Giovinazzi joining Ra¨ikko¨nen at Sauber and his Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly being promoted to Red Bull.
‘‘I’m not panicking. I’m just focussing on doing my job because that’s really the only thing I can do,’’ Hartley said of his pragmatic approach.
For Hartley, it is about letting his driving do the talking to convince Toro Rosso to retain him in 2019.
‘‘They haven’t given me exact targets,’’ he said of Toro Rosso.
‘‘In the end, most of the time you’re competing against your team-mate so that will be the case for the rest of the season.’’
That comparison doesn’t make pretty reading for Hartley. Gasly is in 13th place with 28 points but the Kiwi driver is back in 19th with just two points.
‘‘It’s not that he’s always massively faster but there’s been a few occasions where he’s put an incredible race together and he’s got a few points on the board.
‘‘But both of us haven’t been scoring points in the last races, we haven’t had the car,’’ Hartley said.
At times this season, Toro Rosso has given team orders for Hartley to help Gasly and that, along with many other factors, will be in Hartley’s favour when it comes to the team making driver decisions for 2019.
‘‘If the car’s not fast enough to score points, which has been the case the last few races, then that will be noted as well,’’ Hartley said.