No Hartley means diluted Kiwi F1 interest
Formula One revs back into life on New Zealand’s back doorstep tomorrow but how many Kiwis actually care? With Brendon Hartley not on the grid for the 2019 season opener – the Australian Grand Prix – the level of interest from most Kiwi sports fans has plummeted through the floor.
Hartley’s 13-month stint at Toro Rosso – that ended when he was sacked at the completion of the 2018 season – wasn’t as successful as Kiwi greats Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren or Chris Amon but it gave New Zealanders hope and hope translated to interest.
Hartley was never going to achieve that kind of success as a second driver in a secondary team but as long as he was on the grid it kept us captivated.
For the first time in a long time, Kiwi sports fan were talking about F1 again.
For staunch F1 fans, the demise of Hartley won’t stifle their enthusiasm. But they are the minority in this country.
Hartley’s surprise injection into F1 – late in the 2017 season before landing a fulltime drive in 2018 – came at a time when there was increasing pressure on the premier category in global motorsport to improve its product to be more appealing to the average punter.
Many fans have been calling the pinnacle of global motorsport a snoozefest in recent years.
The noise, the speed and the cutting edge technology are as great as ever but for the last few seasons, the product has only been mildly more entertaining than a rain delay at the cricket.
Cars spread around the track with little to no passing – outside of the hustle and bustle of the opening few laps – has become the norm.
Hard and fast racing, side-by-side, is largely a thing of the past. An entire season is all too often dominated by one team and one driver.
The best hope for 2019 is that Mercedes and Ferrari become locked in a competitive battle where race wins are shared week-to-week but nobody is holding their breath.
Most Kiwi fans could overlook this when Hartley was on the grid but now it’s become a whole lot harder to care.
He was the ninth Kiwi to drive in F1 and the first since Mike Thackwell in 1984 but the first regular driver since Amon retired in 1976.
If you’re in your mid-30s, you’ve grown up without knowing what it was like to have a Kiwi in F1 until Hartley made his debut at the US Grand Prix late in the 2017 season. If you’re in your early 40s, Hartley was the first Kiwi you’ve seen as a fulltime driver who completed a full season.
Instead of being in Melbourne this weekend, Hartley is in Florida for the Sebring weekend where he will contest the 1000-Miles of Sebring World Endurance Championship race with SMP Racing in a less political category where he actually has a car capable of winning the race. No wonder he looks happy and refreshed.
Hartley will pull double duties when he also drives for Action Express Racing in the Sebring 12 Hour race.
Even drivers Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso have referred to different F1 races as being boring in recent times.
Without a Kiwi to follow, 2019 could prove to draw similar comments from New Zealand fans.
There is hope for the future with young guns Liam Lawson (Red Bull Junior Team) and Marcus Armstrong (Ferrari Driver Academy) competing in the new and improved Formula 3 championship in 2019 but neither is guaranteed to make it to F1.
And even if they do, it’s a couple of years away at best.
The Australian Grand Prix is the main event in Melbourne this weekend but Supercars will appear on the undercard and for most New Zealanders they will overshadow the main event.
With Kiwi drivers, Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen going head-tohead at the front of the pack, the level of interest on this side of the Tasman will surely be much greater than when the Australian Grand Prix starts a couple of hours later.
Supercars will be racing panel-topanel with passing in the first and, in all likelihood, the last lap.
F1, supposedly the most innovative category in motorsport, could learn a lot from that.