Motorsport: NZ teen joins Formula One

Brendon Hartley will provide cover for the Red Bull and Toro Rosso teams. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Teenage motor-racing sensation Brendon Hartley has taken a big step towards becoming the first Kiwi in more than 20 years to become a fully-fledged Formula One driver.

The 19-year-old has been named as the third driver for Italy's Scuderia Toro Rosso - but will retain his links with the Red Bull Racing team.

It means he could be following in the slipstreams of our only Formula One champion, Denny Hulme, 1960s Ferrari driver Chris Amon and Mike Thackwell, who raced in Formula One in 1984. Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon was the last Kiwi to drive an F1 car when he tested for Williams in 2004.

Hartley tested for the Red Bull Racing team at Jerez, Spain, in December last year and gained his Super Licence, which allows him to test and race Formula One cars.

Earlier last year, he took part in an unofficial shakedown test of the new Ferrari-engined Toro Rosso F1 car in Italy, as well as trying out a Renault-engined Red Bull car at Silverstone.

The news of Hartley's next big adventure appeared on the Autosport website as part of a question-and-answer session with Franz Tost, team principal of Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Asked if he had made a decision on the third driver for the team, he said: "We will share the third driver. It is Brendon Hartley, who is the driver from the Red Bull driver pool, and I think that we are safe on this side as well."

Neither Red Bull New Zealand nor Hartley's manager Peter Johnson were available for comment, but former McLaren F1 team member of 33 years, Bob McMurray, said: "I think it is a fantastic step for him [Hartley] but he's not an official F1 driver yet. But now he's been taken on as the third driver for both teams, if any of the drivers break a leg he's first cab off the rank. It's big move for him as they have officially named him as the third driver."

Hartley will be at the opening round of the 2009 F1 championship in Melbourne on March 27-29, suited and booted in case something should happen to either of the two Red Bull or Toro Rosso drivers.

It's probably the first time in F1 history a third-named driver could be covering four seats at a GP - Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull Racing and Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdais for Torro Rosso.