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I don't know what happened to Hartley, he seemed to be so good early on, but then just fell off the boat.
Looking at his results. He comes over to Europe in 2006 and wins the Eurocup in 2007 with ease. Jaime Alguersuari was his teammate, and he absolutely obliterated Jaime that year - more than twice the points. And Jaime actually was in his third year of Eurocup so had more experience. Other guys in Eurocup that year were Charles Pic, Oliver Turvey, Leimer, heck even Bianchi did some races.
He also did Formula Renault 2.0 Italia but got beaten by Jaime and Mika Maki in points, though it was close between the three.
2008 British F3 he teams with Oliver Turvey and Alguersuari again, with Jaime winning the title. But all 3 were very close. Hartley had 6 retirements to Alguersuari two, and over the season was the fastest driver, in my opinion, and probably should have been champion. Perez was competing that year as well. At Macau, If I remember rightly, he qualified way down the order and was the sensation of Macau charging through the field to 3rd.
Up till now he's shown he's just as much potential, probably more, than Alguersuari, yet Jaime got to F1 and Brendon got dropped. What happened?
2009 he goes to F3 Euro and struggles with Carlin, although he owned his teammate. Also does FR 3.5 and gets owned by Pic who finishes 3rd in the points with Brendon only getting a single podium for the season, finishing 15th. That was pretty much it, dropped by RB. Fair enough though, that was a pathetic year.
Team mate to Ricciardo and Vergne the next year and gets owned by them again in FR 3.5. Who knows perhaps he took a while to get accustomed to the FR car? It's the only time in his career he dropped form.
I think he came back strong in 2011, but now with backmarker Gravity-Charouz which was hopeless. 7th in points to his teammates 25th. He had a bunch of Gp2 races as well between 2010-2012, for different teams, usually beating his teammates (Melker, Cecotto). Too little too late though. What's my point? I dunno, he obviously didn't have what it takes with those two poor years in FR.
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