Throwback: an interview with Brendon Hartley

Two years ago, the now-Porsche LMP1 driver Brendon Hartley was facing his very first full-season of sportscar racing with Dublin outfit Murphy Prototypes in the ultra-competitive LMP2 category of the European Le Mans Series. Ahead of his second season in the WEC, we revisit this interview from 2013, in which the former Red Bull junior spoke openly about his flirtations with Formula 1 and his goal to someday win the Le Mans 24 Hours.

For a relatively small nation of around 4.5 million people, New Zealand has a rich motorsport heritage boasting the likes of 1964 Formula 1 champion Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, and double Indycar champion Scott Dixon, with 23-year old Brendon Hartley at the forefront of a new generation of Kiwis also comprising GP3 champion Mitch Evans and V8 Supercar stars Shane van Gisberghen and Scott McLaughlin.  A protégé of Colin Giltrap, who helped forge Dixon’s immensely successful career in the United States, Hartley made a bright start to his career by winning first-time out in the Toyota Racing Series, now well established for young drivers across the globe looking for track-time during the winter. 

From there he was picked up by Red Bull, where the goal was pretty clear.

“Just go and win some races; that was pretty much it to be honest,” says Hartley. “They told us what we were racing; there wasn’t a lot of choice. I did Formula Renault for two years, Formula 3 in the UK and the Euroseries, then the World Series. I mean they were all fantastic championships, they knew what they were doing obviously and I stayed with them for five years, got some good results. Really they just wanted you to win, that’s what it came down to.

Pictured with Mark Webber at Red Bull. The two would later
become team-mates in the World Endurance Championship (Getty).

“I was very young when I joined so it was just a lot of discovering as I went on. Coming from New Zealand at that time, there were no drivers in Europe from home. You would sometimes read the odd Autosport magazine and to what’s going on, but we’re kind of in our own world down there. We followed America quite closely because Scott Dixon was doing well there, but for me it was a bit of a new adventure. I moved to Germany at sixteen years old and it was tough not seeing my family for eight to nine months. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and that’s still the case. It’s just one of those things I’m used to. It was very tough in the beginning and I learned a lot from it. I’m definitely a stronger person because of it.

“In some ways, people saw what I did and now there’s a lot more drivers in Europe. In some respects I kind of paved the way; people saw what I was up to and learned about the championships and what’s available over here.  In the early stages it was just me, and I was working it out as I went along.”

After winning the Formula Renault Eurocup and placing a strong fourth on his F3 debut in the Masters, beating Romain Grosjean among others, for 2008 Hartley was placed with crack British F3 outfit Carlin Motorsport, alongside rival Red Bull junior Jaime Alguersuari and Racing Steps pioneer Oliver Turvey, now a factory McLaren GT driver and occasional F1 tester. But despite winning as many times as the eventual champion Alguersuari, inconsistency blighted Hartley’s season and it was the Spaniard who was promoted to F1 with Toro Rosso the following season.

“It was disappointing, probably more because, without being cocky, I think I had the edge for most of the year but just made a lot of mistakes,” Hartley admits. “If anything, I gave the championship away, which was really frustrating. It’s not that I expected to win, but that I had the chance and I threw it away.”

On the cusp of F1, testing for Toro Rosso in 2011 (LAT).

In all, Hartley enjoyed five seasons of Red Bull backing before he was dropped in 2010, but holds no hard feelings about missing out on F1.

“To be honest it wasn’t going that well and I wasn’t performing as I should have been,” Hartley says frankly. “During 2009 I was meant to be doing the Euroseries with Carlin, then at the last minute they decided that I was going to do some World Series as well having never tested the car and at the same time I was the reserve driver for the Formula 1 team. You can imagine my schedule with doing Formula 3, World Series and going to the F1 races. To be honest I was a bit burned out and in some ways I stopped enjoying it, which is obviously not how it should be. I like to think that I’m really back on my game now, but unfortunately there was a small period where I wasn’t right on it, and I’m not the only one that’s happened to.

 “I was there for five years, so I was probably one of the longest lasting Red Bull juniors. Without them I wouldn’t have any of the opportunities I’ve got now, I never would have got the funds to come and race in Europe so I am very thankful for that. It was a shame to get dropped but at the same time that’s life. Besides, I wasn’t the only one, there were maybe around fifty or so guys before me...”

After that, Hartley flirted with the Gravity Driver management scheme that one stage had a majority stake in the Lotus-Renault F1 team, and took drives in GP2 and World Series where and when they became available, his 3.5 podium at Monaco in 2011 a clear highlight. But with diminishing chances of making F1, one final crack at GP2 in Bahrain last April for Tiago Monteiro's underfunded Ocean Racing Technology proved highly disappointing. A promising run from last on the grid to 10th in race 1 was followed by a suspension issue in race 2 which caused his retirement while well placed to score points, before being buried in the frantic midfield pack for races 3 and 4.

"I got drafted in at the last moment. It’s one of those races where something small can happen [to disrupt your weekend] and in the end we didn't get a result from it when maybe we could have done."

Negotiating La Sarthe at sunset (Murphy Prototype).

Without a full-time ride on the horizon, Hartley made the bold decision to switch to sportscars, a category in the ascendancy with increasing manufacturer involvement and arguably the best prospects for a driver to turn professional.

"I take a realistic approach to it,” Hartley says. “Growing up racing go-karts I always said I wanted to be a Formula One driver but I never really knew how that was going to happen. As things turned out I actually got pretty close! Originally I was looking at America and what the options were. I never had the money to race, I had a very good sponsor and support team in New Zealand that were trying to help me get there, and when the opportunity with Red Bull came up it was a no-brainer to come over and give Europe a chance. I had never really looked at sportscar racing; the goal was always single-seaters.

“I've really enjoyed being in LMP2 and I'd like to make a career out of it. I'm still young - I'm only 23 years old although I've been in Europe almost seven years - so I have a lot of experience for my age.”

Many a driver has struggled to make the transition a success, with the traffic, driver-changes and graveyard shifts that are all part and parcel of sportscar racing, a step largely into the unknown. But if anything, changing to sportscars provided the impetus Hartley need to get back to his best, making a strong first impression at the fearsome Spa- Francorchamps and taking fastest lap at Donington.

In conversation with Le Mans legend Dindo Capello (Murphy Prototype).

"I've kind of had the perfect entry into sportscars with Murphys, it’s gone really well. Straight away at Spa I think I did a good job, I did I think three or four stints in the race, got some good lap-times and came through third. Le Mans was going very well as well, we were setting quickest times during the night and it was unfortunate to have the problem we had, then at Donington we were on the podium again.

"It requires a different style to drive. Ultimately it’s still a car with four wheels and an engine and I was on the pace pretty much straight away, so that wasn't a problem. It took me a little while to adapt to sharing a car. It’s not always easy, because although they're your teammates and you want to help them out, it’s a weird feeling. Normally your team-mate is your worst enemy, so it’s quite a different approach. That has taken me a while to get used to, but I'm very fortunate as everyone has been great to work with and it’s a really nice atmosphere in the team. It’s important that you can have fun. As an entry into sportscars it’s worked for me and I've enjoyed it, which was the main thing; if you don't enjoy it then why are you here?”

Following the 24 Hours (“it was just incredible, a big rollercoaster ride, you're just emotionally wrecked after the week, I hope I'll go back there many times"), Hartley cut his teeth on Mount Panorama in the Bathurst 12 and almost won on his debut in Grand-Am, setting him up nicely for a crack at the 2013 ELMS title with Murphy Prototypes, now a fully independent team running out of Brackley near Silverstone. With ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok and experienced GT campaigner Mark Patterson lined up to partner him for another assault at La Sarthe, Hartley will certainly be a man to look out for in 2013, and not just because of his eye-catching hairstyle…

Gene goes lights to flag in Sepang

Jordi Gene marked his racing comeback with a lights-to-flag victory in the second TCR event of the weekend in Sepang, as Craft-Bamboo Racing took a 1-2 finish.

Gene lead away from the start under enormous pressure from Hungarian teenager Ferenc Ficza, but the veteran Spaniard was soon able to build a rhythm, leaving Ficza to defend from Pepe Oriola and Gianni Morbidelli’s Honda.

As the front four began to break away from the chasing pack, Oriola made his move into turn four, forcing Ficza wide over the run-off and allowing an opportunistic Morbidelli to take third.

Gene takes the checkered flag from Oriola (TCR International Series)

Oriola then considered making a challenge for the lead, but after a brief spell of pressure was content to settle for second, behind an elated Gene.

“I am really very happy, I never expected to win in this opening event,” said Gene. “I haven’t been racing at this level for two years, then because it was a new circuit for me, and also because in practice and in qualifying I had some power issue in my car due to the heat. But everything went perfectly today.”

As Ficza drifted backwards to an eventual tenth, Target Competion team-mates Andrea Belicchi and Stefano Comini advanced to fourth and fifth places behind Morbidelli. Belicchi managed to make a move stick on the final lap, only to leave the door open at the final corner; Morbidelli didn’t need to be asked twice, with Saturday-winner Comini also managing to pass on the short run to the flag.

Honda team-mates Rene Munnich and Kevin Gleason kept out of trouble to finish sixth and seventh.

After the chaos of race one, the field at least managed to keep it clean until turn four, when Michel Nykjaer barrelled into Lorenzo Veglia, Saturday podium finisher Sergey Afanasyev and the luckless Mikhail Grachev. At least this time the Audi would make it to the finish in eighth, from Frank Yu and Ficza.

Comini dominant in TCR opener

Stefano Comini took a dominant win in the first ever TCR International Series race in Sepang, as SEAT completed a podium lockout.

After an additional formation lap, both front-row men got a sluggish start, allowing Rene Munnich to challenge Comini for the lead into turn one from fifth on the grid. However, both missed their braking points and ran wide, Comini somehow surviving a lurid half-spin and still emerging in second, with polesitter Kevin Gleason coming through to the lead.

Undeterred, the Swiss driver tracked Gleason around the rest of the lap and pounced at the turn 15 hairpin. Thereafter, he was never troubled and duly romped away to take his and Target Competion’s first win.

Comini took a determined win in the inaugural TCR event (TCR International Series)

As Gleason struggled to keep pace with Comini, he found himself under intense pressure from the Craft-Bamboo SEATs of Sergey Afanasyev and Pepe Oriola, who managed to cut through the turn one mayhem from seventh and eighth on the grid respectively.

By the end of lap two, both Lukoil machines had muscled past, although what appeared to be a missed gear from Afanasyev promptly gifted second to Oriola, who will start a promising third for Race Two on Sunday.

Gleason would at least mount a late fight-back against Afanasyev and forced the Russian into a huge lock-up at turn nine, but was unable to convert the pressure into a passing opportunity. The American would eventually lose out to the second Honda of team-mate Gianni Morbidelli and fellow front-row starter Andrea Belicchi, who recovered well from first-lap contact with Ferenc Ficza to finish fifth.

Race Two polesitter Jordi Gene had a quiet race on his return to action in seventh, with Michel Nykjaer, Ficza and Lorenzo Veglia rounding out the top ten.

Mikael Grachev had been running a strong sixth on the debut outing for the Liqui Moly Team Engstler Audi TT, before encountering problems that forced him to join team-mate Franz Engstler and Munnich among the watching spectators.

TCR Set For Sepang Launch

17 cars from five different marques will take to the grid as the TCR International Series gets underway at Sepang this weekend.

After months in the works and a successful BOP homologation test in Barcelona, TCR founder Marcello Lotti’s vision has finally come to pass, and will kick off with SEAT, Honda, Opel, Audi and Ford all represented at the inaugural meeting in support of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Following two practice sessions on Friday and a qualifying session on Saturday, Rounds One and Two will both be streamed live on TCR’s official YouTube channel at 08:25 CET on Saturday and 05:30 CET on Sunday respectively. Each will run to ten laps or 20 minutes.

TCR is set to go racing in Malaysia (TCR International Series)

Although the concept and machinery is unfamiliar, with the Proteam Ford entry for Diego Romanini announced only on Tuesday, there will be several recognisable names on the driving front, with former WTCC winners Gianni Morbidelli, Michel Nykjaer, Franz Engstler and Pepe Oriola heading the bill.

The popular Spaniard Jordi Gene returns to the cockpit of a SEAT two years on from his last racing foray in the STCC, while former Renault Megane champion Stefano Comini, World Endurance Championship convert Andrea Belicchi and single-seater graduate Sergey Afanasyev could also be ones to watch in this foray into the unknown.

More entries are expected in time for Round Three and start of the European leg of the championship at Valencia in May, by which point hopefully the mist will have cleared and the favourites will have come to the fore.

Joni Wiman: Taking Rallycross By Storm

To a certain generation who sadly missed the late Colin McRae operating at his peak, Ken Block is the epitome of cool. Revered for his unique brand of drifting, ‘Gymkhana’, the Californian has become a YouTube sensation, his latest video racking up an astonishing 22 million hits and counting since it was posted in November.

But flash back to the first round of the 2014 Global Rallycross Championship at Barbados, and Block was on the ropes. After a demon start, Block had a clear track ahead of him, but let his concentration slip and ran wide at the penultimate turn, allowing Joni Wiman to sneak past him. Possibly too eager to atone for losing his lead, Block charged down the inside into the fast right-hander to finish the lap, launching his Fiesta over the kerb and over, onto his roof.

Just who was this fresh-faced 20 year-old rookie that Block had gone to such extraordinary and ultimately disastrous lengths to try and pass?

Block barrell-rolls out of the final in Barbados trying to pass Joni Wiman (Alison Padron)

By season’s end, nobody was left in doubt.

After that first chaotic weekend in Barbados, ultimately ruined by a penalty for taking the joker lap twice, Wiman drove impeccably. Though others hit higher peaks – in fact, he didn’t win a race all season – few could match Wiman for consistency, which thrust him into position for a final-round title showdown in Las Vegas with Block.  After a crash in Seattle left him down in ninth at the finish, Block knew that nothing short of a win would suffice in the final and duly upheld his side of the bargain. But the title was Wiman’s to lose, and a measured drive to second, his fourth podium finish on the spin, ensured it was the Finn who took the crown in his rookie year.

“It wasn't the easiest of starts!” he concedes. “I got a bit frustrated after Barbados, but once I got the podium in Washington, things just turned around and I got my self-confidence back. Once you have that it becomes a lot easier.”

The foundations of Wiman’s title challenge were built on an unrivalled run of seven top-four finishes from the final eight races, interrupted only by a puncture in Daytona. As the championship challenges of former F1 duo Scott Speed and Nelson Piquet Jr gradually lost steam, Wiman showed the makings of a champion with his mistake-free approach. Under pressure, he did not crack.

Wiman, with Brian Deegan (left) and Sverre Isachsen (centre) scored four
consecutive podiums to round out the Global Rallycross season (Alison Padron)

“During the year I knew I was fast, but I had to get all the things together and get one clean race, so that was the main target for the rest of the year," he said. "I haven't always been strong under pressure but I've grown up a lot this year and as I said, everything starts from the self-confidence and if you can handle the pressure too. 

"It was a really good end to the season; the second half was perfect. Of course to win the championship it was still a surprise for me as I didn't have a win, but sometimes consistency is the key.”

For such a young man, Wiman’s level-headed approach is a refreshing virtue that should serve him well in his future career. The imprint of his mentor, double World Rally champion Marcus Gronholm, whose recommendation it was that Wiman take up rallycross after the funds for a single-seater career dried up, is clear to see.

Wiman takes up the story; "I was driving single-seaters until the end of 2011 but then my career was stopped because it was getting too expensive. Then Marcus said we should try rallycross for one year and see how it goes - I've been doing Folkrace since I was 16, so I went into Super 1600 in the European Championship and I was fast right away, so I knew it could be my thing.

"[Gronholm] is a big help, he hasn't told me too much about driving because I know that part, but he just takes care of the sponsors and of course it’s amazing to have him there, and always if I have something to ask, he is there. It's just like normal, you would never believe he was a double World Champion when you see him because he is so warm, he's just like a friend."

Former WRC champion Gronholm has earmarked Wiman for the top (OMSE)

With Gronholm’s guidance, Wiman headed Stateside to continue his rallycrossing education in the GRC Lites category in 2013. Wiman blitzed the opposition, impressing Olsbergs MSE boss Andreas Eriksson enough to offer him the seat vacated by his compatriot Topi Heikkinen, the 2013 GRC champion. A former racer himself, Eriksson’s penchant for putting his faith in youth and getting the best out of them – his FIA World RX lineup of Andreas Bakkerud and Reinis Nitišs, who won the inaugural team’s championship, have an average age of 21 – has been a big part of his team’s success on both sides of the Atlantic and offers Wiman an environment in which he can thrive.

"That's just a part of how Andreas wants to build up the team, for us to grow up in the team so we know how it works and that is the way to be the best,” Wiman says. “My relationship with him is obviously really good, otherwise I wouldn't be driving for him. His driving style was a bit aggressive, so he knows how to cool a driver down and tells me to drive smoother and so on. He knows how it all works.”

Wiman is set to defend his GRC crown in 2015, where he will face even stiffer opposition than before, with all the usual cast plus former champion Tanner Foust back for the full season in the Andretti Autosport VW Beetle. Securing that elusive first win will be first on the agenda, but what will be next on the Finn’s horizons? 

After an appetite-wetting outing in the World Championship at Trois-Rivieres, a full season assault beckons at some point in the future, but for now, Wiman is content to bide his time.

“Well of course I want to be a World Champion at some point, but it's not a must right now as I have a lot of years ahead of me. I want to be a professional driver and just focus on rallycross, that's the main thing for me.”

Wiman celebrates on the roof of his Fiesta after winning the GRC title in Las Vegas (Joni Wiman)