Brendon Hartley

Career

Hartley was born in Palmerston North in a family well integrated within motorsport. His father, Bryan, had raced in many forms of motorsport, most notably Formula Atlantic. At the age of six, Hartley began his motor racing career in kart racing, following his brother, Nelson's footsteps.

Six years later, the young New Zealander competed in his first full–scale race championship, competing in the Formula First category. Up against many seasoned veterans, Hartley finished the season in seventh. In 2003, the thirteen-year-old got his first major break as he won that year's New Zealand Formula Ford Festival which resulted in him getting a drive for the following year's Formula Ford championship. In a car his brother used the previous year, he started four races and won two of them.

After a season in Formula Toyota New Zealand, Hartley moved to Europe, competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC). The New Zealander finished 14th and 10th in the Drivers' Championship in the Eurocup and North European Cup respectively, taking a podium position at Anderstorp in the latter. His second year in Formula Renault saw him stay in the Eurocup, but move from the NEC to the Italian championship. That year saw him take three wins in the Eurocup and three podiums in the Italian championship, and took championship title in the Eurocup.

In 2007 Hartley also made his Formula Three debut in the Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder event, finishing 4th. This resulted in a test with A1 Team New Zealand and the role of the rookie driver for the series.

In 2008, Hartley competed in the British Formula 3 Championship for Carlin Motorsport winning five times and eventually finished the championship in third. He would have placed higher up, due to a greater amount of retirements compared to that of his teammates Jaime Alguersuari and Oliver Turvey. They had two each, while Hartley had six. He also competed in eight races in the Formula Three Euroseries for Carlin and RC Motorsport, and achieved two finishes in the points, although he was ineligible for points. In non-championship races, Hartley finished fifth at the Masters of Formula 3, and a sensational drive at the Macau Grand Prix to finish third, after crashing in the qualification race. He started 20th on the grid and recorded the fastest race lap.

He stayed with Carlin for the full F3 Euroseries in 2009, finishing eleventh despite missing two rounds due to Formula Renault 3.5 Series commitments. In that series, Hartley competed for the defending champion Tech 1 Racing team, and ended fifteenth in the championship.

He has been confirmed at Tech 1 for a full season of Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010, where he was partnered by Australian and fellow Red Bull Junior driver, Daniel Ricciardo. During the series' summer break it was announced that Hartley had been dropped from the Red Bull Junior Team. His seat was taken by British Formula 3 championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne.

Despite the loss of his Red Bull backing, Hartley made his GP2 Series début at Monza in September, replacing Vladimir Arabadzhiev at the Coloni team. He scored a point in the season finale at Yas Marina to place 27th in the championship.

For 2011, Hartley returned to Formula Renault 3.5, driving alongside Jan Charouz for the Gravity–Charouz Racing team. He also returned to GP2 for the eighth round of the series at Spa-Francorchamps, replacing Kevin Mirocha and driving alongside Johnny Cecotto Jr. in the Ocean Racing Technology team, for whom he had tested before the start of the season. He finished in fifth place in his first race with the team, and 19th in the overall championship.

Hartley began the 2012 season without a drive, but returned to Ocean for the second round of the championship in Bahrain in place of Jon Lancaster. After the two rounds in Bahrain, he was in turn replaced by Víctor Guerin. He finished 25th in the championship.

With no suitable single-seater drives available, Hartley joined the Murphy Prototypes sportscar team, which was competing in the LMP2 class in the European Le Mans Series. Following the cancellation of the second round of the ELMS championship (which would have been Hartley's début event) and the series' future in doubt, Murphy was one of several ELMS teams invited to compete as a guest entry in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, a round of the more prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship. Driving the team's Oreca 03-Nissan, Hartley finished tenth overall and third in the LMP2 class with teammates Warren Hughes and Jody Firth. The trio teamed up again for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but retired from the race after completing 196 laps of the circuit.

Formula One

In February 2008, aged 18, Hartley got his first taste of Formula One. He was invited to perform a show run for Red Bull Racing in Riyadh. From here he performed the initial three-day shake-down test for Scuderia Toro Rosso's 2008 spec car, the STR3.

In November 2008, it was announced he would be providing cover for Mark Webber, who had broken his leg in a cycling accident, by performing testing duties alongside permanent test driver Sébastien Buemi for Red Bull in the 2008 RB4 F1 car.

For the 2009 season, Hartley was appointed as official reserve driver for both the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams.

However, unable to get his mandatory superlicence approved until April 2009, he was replaced in this role by retired F1 driver David Coulthard for the first races in Melbourne and Sepang. Hartley made his debut as reserve and test driver at the Spanish Grand Prix on 8 May. He is the first New Zealander to achieve F1 driver status since Mike Thackwell in 1984. He was replaced in the role by fellow Red Bull Junior driver Jaime Alguersuari for the second half of the season. However Hartley did not return to the reserve driver role with Red Bull and Toro Rosso following Jaime Alguersuari's promotion to a race seat, preferring to focus on his F3 and Renault World Series season. David Coulthard again took over the role.

For the 2010 season, Hartley was again appointed official reserve driver for both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. He shared the reserve driver duties with his Formula Renault 3.5 teammate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo. The two drivers shared the duties on a race-by-race basis until round six of the championship. Following this race, Hartley's support from Red Bull was dropped, based on the fact he had not won a race in his season and a half in the championship.

On 13 September 2012, he participated in the young driver test at Magny-Cours. He drove 87 laps for AMG Mercedes F1 on the final day, setting the third quickest time behind Jules Bianchi (Ferrari) and Rodolfo González (Force India).

Mercedes (2012–2013)

He said the simulator development work and the test drive with AMG Mercedes would give him a new opportunity to get back into Formula One.

Sports prototypes

Hartley was signed to drive an Oreca 03-Nissan for Murphy Prototypes in the 2013 European Le Mans Series season.

Porsche later announced him as a factory driver of the Porsche 919 Hybrid in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Career summary

† Hartley was ineligible to score points.
* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† As Hartley was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

† As Hartley was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
* Season still in progress.

Rolex Sports Car Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap. Results are overall/class)

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

^* Season still in progress
¹ – The #7 of Starworks Motorsport withdrew from the 12 Hours of Sebring before Practice