Motorsport: Still on cusp of dream

Driving a Formula One car is still Brendon Hartley's greatest dream. Photo / Supplied

It seems ludicrous to suggest that, at 20, Brendon Hartley is in danger of being considered 'past it' as he chases a Formula One drive.

But while there are always exceptions - Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Mark Webber stand out - F1 is by and large a young man's game and Hartley needs to make his move soon if he is to become the first Kiwi since Mike Thackwell in 1984 to get a seat in the world's most glamorous motor sport.

He has been on the cusp for some time, having been signed by Red Bull Racing five years ago as a talented up-and-comer. Over the past two years he has had stints as reserve driver for both Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso and he performed the duty again at Bahrain last month for the opening round of the F1 season.

It's a duty he shares with Australia's Daniel Ricciardo, and the pair alternate on a race-by-race basis. All it would take is for one of the drivers to get injured or fall ill and Hartley is on the grid.

Strangely, though, Hartley seems further away from a drive than this would suggest. Reserves occasionally step in, as a 19-year-old Sebastian Vettel did for Robert Kubica in the 2007 US Grand Prix (he finished eighth to become the youngest driver to score a point in F1), but it is rare. Hartley needs to produce something compelling to win a drive with Red Bull or any other F1 team.

"What he has to do is win, it's as simple as that," says Bob McMurray, who spent more than 30 years working for McLaren in F1 before taking over as chief executive of the New Zealand A1GP team. "He has to win races in the three-and-a-half litre [World Series] championship. He has to shine in that, to show a flash of brilliance, to put his head and shoulders above everyone else.

"I thought last year he was on the cusp. This year I think he is really on the cusp of getting sidetracked and getting stuck in his Formula One dream. There are a lot of good, young drivers coming through and most have won lots of stuff to get into Formula One. Brendon has never won a championship in Europe. That's what he has to do this year. He has to make his mark as a fast driver."

Hartley knows it. He admits he had a poor year in 2009, when he failed to win a race in 13 starts in the 3.5 World Series Renault (he had one pole position) and finished 15th overall. He also competed in Formula Three with mixed results and it's part of the reason why he was overlooked when a seat came up with Red Bull last year.

It's also why he is putting most of his focus on this year's 3.5 World Series, which begins in Spain this weekend. He needs to be racing.

It was a series Fernando Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica all won. Vettel was leading in 2007 before he made the step up to F1 mid-season.

"It's fair to say I could have been a Formula One driver last year but at that time, when the position opened, I wasn't having a fantastic year and probably didn't deserve to be there," Hartley says from his base in Milton Keynes. "My team-mate for the previous two years got it. That was a bit hard to handle but it's a timing thing.

"I'm ready for a fresh start this year and ready to show everyone I deserve to be there. You don't get many chances to drive Formula One so I'm guessing this is probably my last year to show I'm worthy. I already have a foot in a door but if I am going to convert that opportunity I need to do something. I'm pushing hard.

"This is my fifth year with Red Bull. I have been with them since the start and I'm now at the last step of the programme. I either make the jump to Formula One or I don't. Or I try a different route. In my eyes I need to prove myself this year."

* * *

When he stepped into an F1 car for the first time, Hartley was left speechless. He had dreamed about it from when he started kart racing as a six-year-old in Palmerston North.

"It's probably the biggest rush in the world," he says, struggling to find the right words. "I remember the first time I jumped in a F1 car. I arrived at the corner and my eyes felt like they were still at the last corner. It took a while for the brain to speed up. Physically, it's very demanding. There's more than five Gs and that's a lot of strain on the body.

"It's the fastest car in the world. Sometimes I take it for granted. Sometimes I see it as a job rather than pleasure. There's a lot of pressure, a lot of money at stake, there are many things going on. Sometimes I just need to sit back and go, 'hey, look what I'm doing'.

"People would kill to do what I do. It's like anything, if you do it for so long it starts to become normal.

"I need to sit back and remember to enjoy it."

That's not to say Hartley isn't enjoying it. Strict rules around testing mean he doesn't often slip into an F1 car but he still plays a vital role for Red Bull. Each team has a simulator, which is as close to driving a real F1 car as technologically possible. Hartley spends a lot of time in the simulator, testing subtle changes to the set-up to see if they eke out more speed. Webber, for example, might report some difficulties with the car, Hartley will test a different set-up on the simulator back in Milton Keynes. Depending on how it goes, mechanics can make a change to Webber's car.

To illustrate just how big a part the simulator plays in racing now, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton flew back to the UK after the recent Malaysian Grand Prix to test changes on the simulator ahead of this weekend's round in Shanghai.

McMurray said that as long as Hartley did the simulator job well, and as long as Red Bull trusted him in that job, he would carve out a little niche to settle into as a working driver there.

"Whether that gets him to be a F1 driver at grands prix is another matter," he says.

McMurray has had a turn in a simulator. It had to be turned down to 20 per cent of its capability or it would have broken his neck.

"It's getting closer and closer [to the real thing]," says Hartley, who still sports the long, blond mane. "They will make the slightest change to the right side of the car and I will feel it. I'm lapping within 5/10ths of the actual lap times all the time.

"It's beginning to be a big part of F1 now because they don't allow a lot of testing. Someone will have an idea on the car. To go away and manufacture it and put it on the car will cost a lot of money and time. The fact they can go and punch some numbers in the simulator and get the feeling within a few hours, it's becoming a big, big tool. Maybe in 10 years' time it will take over testing altogether.

"You don't have that same adrenaline rush [as driving the real thing] but it helps perfect your racing technique. In the simulator you can try something you wouldn't normally try on the race track. The consequences aren't the same. If you hit the wall, it's a couple of minutes to re-start the system rather than a couple of hours and $50,000. I have learned a few little tricks I wouldn't have normally.

"It's not [what I had in mind when I first got into racing] but it's still good experience. Working with a F1 team, you're learning all the time."

The real prize, though, is sitting behind the wheel of a 600kg rocket that can reach speeds up to 360km/h and which is watched by more than 600 million people around the world each race weekend.