[Razzzor]

It's funny I always thought Brendon was a little bit behind Mitch Evans, Richie Stanaway and Chris van der Drift. And of course Dixon but pigs will fly before F1 teams will look at Indycar. Silly really because Newgarden would have been great to see at the US GP, might have got a lot more media coverage. Rossi too, the Indy 500 champ guesting in F1.

Back to the kiwis, Mitch just landed in the wrong teams, or right team in the case of Russian Time but wrong timing when they were at their weakest. Stanaway had a lot bad luck (that Lotus 3.5 campaign was ridiculous) but is prone to mistakes (see Le Mans 2017 where he binned a sure win). But he's very fast, proved that he can drive anything with his Sandown and Bathurst performances. Chris disappeared, probably no money. Bamber is also very good. Nick Cassidy really the only average driver from NZ on the international scene (and even he took pole at the last Super Formula race). But Brendon got that RB junior support so really was the only one capable of reaching F1 in the early years.

Looking over Hartley's career it's interesting to look back now and see who some of his team mates were.

He won the 2007 Eurocup 2.0 against Charles Pic. Jaime Alguersuari was his team mate also in the RB programme I think at that time. At the same time he was competing in Formula Rental 2.0 Italia and was beaten by his team mates Mika Maki and Alguersuari to the title, with only 1 race win. I didn't watch that season but he did have twice as many retirements as Maki.

Next year again team mates with Alguersuari and Oliver Turvey in British F3. Algeursuari got the title, Hartley again 3rd behind his team mates. However, he was often the quickest of the three and just had bad luck during the year. Six retirements to Turvey's 1, Algeursuari 2. Oh Ricciardo was in the series that year too, finishing 6th. Sergio Perez finished 4th.

Next year 2009 F3. This is where everything went downhill and he failed to deliver. Just 1 race win and only 11th in points. Bianchi took the title, Bottas 3rd. Hartley beat his team mates but more would have been expected than 11th. Although Carlin was new to F3. He also competed in 3.5, team mate to Pic who finished 3rd while Hartley struggled to 15th. He did miss 2 rounds, being replaced by Ricciardo who actually struggled as well. Was he spreading himself too thin doing 2 series? It was Tech 1 though, a quick team that won the constructors titles 4 times between 2007-2012.

The following year he stayed in 3.5 with Tech 1 (how I don't know) but mid season RB dropped him from the programme as his results weren't good enough. Ricciardo was now his team mate who eventually finished 2nd in points with 4 wins, Hartley had none by seasons end. His results were better than the year before, however mid-season he got dropped from the team and replaced by Vergne, who straight away went on a run of 1-3-3-2nd to outscore Hartley in just 6 races. I thought that was it for the kiwi, he was fast but for whatever reason the 2009 and 2010 seasons he struggled to match his team mates. They were good team mates though, we didn't know at the time Ricciardo would go in to become one of the best in F1.

Hartley actually managed to score a GP2 drive for the last two rounds that year and actually did pretty well to finish in the points in both races at Yas Marina. There were a lot of good drivers in Gp2 that year; Maldonado, Perez, Grosjean, Bianchi, Bird, Turvey, van der Gardge, Valescchi, Pic, d'Ambrosio, Ericsson, Leimer, Filippi, even Chilton. So that 6th place was pretty good in the finale, ahead of Bianchi and champion Maldonado in what wasn't one of the top teams.

That led to a stay in 3.5 in 2011 with Gravity–Charouz Racing, a year where Brendon suddenly found his form again. It was a backmarker team, team mate (boss) only scored 10 points to Hartley's 95 which ended up being 7th in points. But he was behind a pretty good bunch of drivers; Wickens, Vergne, Rossi, Ricciardo, Albert Costa (great driver that never really got to the top of the ladder... probably lack of funds).

He got the last 2 Gp2 rounds again, this time for Ocean Racing (not exactly a leading team) and straight away finished 5th in his first race ahead of team mate Cecotto Jr. He did a couple more races in 2012, not great results but faster than Nigel Melker and Jon Lancaster. Not exactly cream of the crop though, Hartley's chances had gone in that 09/10 seasons where his team mates Alguersuari, Ricciardo and Vergne all moved on to F1.

After that he somehow scored a Rolex Sports Car drive, got a win, did an LMP2 drive where he did well, then through somewhat of a miracle scored the LMP1 Porsche drive. It took a long time for them to get that first win, their first season was plagued with bad luck. But the second season with them was dominant, 4 wins in a row and the title. 2016 another 4 wins but Le Mans and the first 2 rounds put them so far back in points they couldn't catch their team mates, despite being faster in most races. 2017 has seen them get the lucky side of the garage this time, another 4 wins including 24 Hours and they're currently more than 2 race wins ahead of 2nd in points with only 3 rounds to go. If they win this weekend, it's the title.

Did anyone notice Hartley did a guest drive in the last round of the WeatherTech Sports Cars and outright won?

I was expecting Porsche to keep Hartley for their 2019 FE campaign, meaning he'll be on the sidelines for 2018 or perhaps a LMGTE for a year. Although no announcement yet maybe Hartley doesn't want to wait. But gosh with Ganassi now wanting him for the #10 and now the possibility of a F1 drive for 2018 if he does well at the US GP, it's all up for Brendon! I hope he doesn't blow it.

I do think TR would have been better off with Buemi who's been the master of FE since its inception, even bring Vergne back. Perhaps they really are looking at Hartley as a 2019 driver, whereas Verge and Buemi already have contracts they may want to keep. Amazing that RB are at a point where they're recycling ex-junior drivers because they don't want to hire someone outside their programme. I guess they don't want to groom a driver contracted to Mercedes or Ferrari in case he turns out awesome.