Written by Benjamin Crundwell, Edited by Sharifah Zaqreeztrina
While Brendon Hartley is best known for his outstanding achievements in sportscar racing, he was unable to fulfil his full potential in single-seaters.
Brendon Hartley first dipped his toes into the world of Formula One as a reserve driver for both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2009. However, the position did not last long, as he was replaced by Jaime Alguersuari for the second half of the season.
The following year, alongside his Formula Renault 3.5 teammate Daniel Ricciardo, they shared the reserve driver duties for Red Bull, until Hartley was dropped from the Austrian team due to lacklustre results in the Formula Renault 3.5 series.
Struggling to find a single-seater drive for 2012, Hartley turned to sportscars. He joined Murphy Prototypes team to race an LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series, with a guest entry into the 6 hours of Spa and making his debut in the 24 hours of Le Mans.
Hartley also secured a factory seat to race a Porsche’s 919 Hybrid for the 2014 WEC season. The first major success in the Kiwi’s career came in 2015 when he (alongside teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard) won their first WEC championship.
More success followed as Hartley won Le Mans and overall his second WEC championship title two years later, this time alongside Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber.
At the 2017 United States Grand Prix, the Kiwi returned to the F1 field, making his debut with Toro Rosso, replacing an absent Pierre Gasly. He qualified 17th but due to engine penalties, he started from 19th.
In the race, he progressed to 13th place, impressing Toro Rosso enough to announce Hartley would replace Daniil Kvyat for the remainder of the season, and the entire 2018 season.
During his first season as a full-time driver, Hartley gathered together four points, spread across three point scoring races. However, much of the season proved to be disappointing, with luck going any way but his, for instance the New Zealander was unfortunate enough to be in front of Leclerc when the Monegasque suffered a brake failure and took out Hartley in Monaco.
A few races later, he was the victim of a suspension failure at Silverstone, which left him in the barrier after a high speed crash at Brooklands. Hartley ended up in 19th place in the championship standings. As a result, Toro Rosso confirmed Brendon Hartley would be replaced by Thailand’s Alex Albon for the following year.
In 2019, Hartley headed back to sportscar racing with Toyota Gazoo Racing. The Kiwi made his way back to the top step of Le Mans in 2020, and again in 2022, when he also won the WEC championship for a third time (alongside Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa).
His fourth championship came last year in 2023 (with Buemi and Hirakawa again). This has left Buemi and Hartley as the two most successful WEC drivers since the series was created in 2012, with four championships each.
While Hartley’s single seater career has little to brag about, many fans seem to agree that he was held back frequently by bad luck. Regardless, he has become one of the most decorated sportscar drivers, with three Le Mans wins and four WEC championship titles under his belt.
As for his 2024 campaign, Hartley took his first win of the season in the most recent race at Sao Paulo and currently sits fifth in the championship standings.
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