25/05/2018
NEWS STORY
It's fair to say that Red Bull and Toro Rosso have history when it comes to losing patience with drivers.
Indeed, in mid-2010, Brendon Hartley, who was sharing test and reserve driver duties for the sister teams with Daniel Ricciardo, was dropped after it was felt his performance in the Formula Renault 3.5 series was not good enough. Dropped not only as test and reserve driver but from the entire Red Bull Junior Programme.
Hence the raised eyebrows when the youngster, now a proven WEC champion and Le Mans winner was brought back into the fold to replace Pierre Gasly at Toro Rosso - who was himself replacing Daniil Kvyat - as the French youngster contested the final round of the Super Formula series last year.
Subsequently signed for the remainder of the season, such was the poor reliability of the Renault-powered Toro Rosso that it was difficult to make a judgement. Nonetheless, both Hartley and Gasly were retained for this season as the Faenza outfit switched from Renault to Honda power.
Finally opening his points account in Azerbaijan, it's fair to say that Hartley's performances have not set the world alight, colliding with his teammate in China and then crashing heavily in FP3 in Spain.
With an eye on the team's track record in terms of hiring and firing, it comes as no surprise to hear that there are already murmurs of unease, claims that the original decision was right, that the New Zealander is not cut out for F1.
Speaking in Monaco ahead of a weekend when he, along with Romain Grosjean, is sure to be in the media spotlight Hartley was keen to dismiss the speculation over his future.
"Well, I have a contract, so I was surprised to hear,'' he told reporters when asked about the speculation. "Formula One obviously moves quick, there are always plenty of critics. But as a driver, you're your own biggest critic. I had two weekends not completely clean. In fairness I scored my first point in Azerbaijan. The first three races of the year, I was ahead in qualifying for two of the three.
"Ultimately we've not had the pace to be in the points all the time," he continued. "I was really happy with my race in Barcelona. Again we didn't have the pace to move much further up the grid. I felt I did more or less what I could.
"I'm happy with how I dealt with having a crash," he added. "It can happen. Obviously you don't want it to happen, and I'll make a big effort that it doesn't happen again. But I'm not the only one that will have a crash, and it won't be my last crash. It's part of being a racing driver.'
"I'll move on and fight this weekend, and hopefully have a good result. There's always a lot of rumours in Formula One so as a driver, it's better not to read too much. I know that I'm a team player. I'm working very hard behind the scenes. I know I'm more than capable. I think I've showed that in the first three qualifyings of the year.
"Since then I haven't even done a lap in qualifying. I've had some good races, but only once this year have we had the pace in the car to score big points, and that was the race I had a penalty in and didn't deliver.
"I know I'll have my time. I'm very motivated this weekend to have a good result."