Hartley has been on the periphery of Formula One for many years, as part of the Red Bull development team, then as reserve driver for the team. However, he didn't have a chance to take a race seat until the 2017 season, when Toro Rosso called him to Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard's move to Renault.

F1 biography

Brendan Hartley had plenty of encouragement for his racing career from his father, who was a racer himself, and from his brother who had also started a racing career. Hartley worked through the early years of carting before joining Formula First, and then Formula Ford.

He raced through several single seater series in New Zealand before moving to Europe to join the Formula Renault circuit. In 2007, he moved on to Formula Three, and the following year really made his mark in the British F3 Championship with five race wins and a third place in the championship.

As part of the Red Bull development programme, Brendon was given a taste of Formula One cars with a street demo and testing for both Red Bull and Toro Rosso. He was part of the crew to cover testing for an injured Mark Webber in 2008's winter, and earned a spot as the official reserve driver for 2009.

Despite earning good results over the next few seasons, Hartley was dropped from the Red Bull Junior Team in 2010, so he turned his attention to GP2. With routes into Formula One dwindling, Hartley moved to the Europeans Le Mans series and then the World Endurance Championship. However, F1 was to come calling once again, with Toro Rosso giving Hartley a race drive towards the end of the 2017 season, as they looked to shore up the team for the following year.