Brendon Hartley

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Brendon Morris Hartley (born 10 November 1989) is a New Zealand racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota. Hartley competed in Formula One from to . In endurance racing, Hartley has won a joint-record four FIA World Endurance Championship titles—tied with Sébastien Buemi—and is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He won the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, alongside his teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, and also went on to win the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Bernhard and Earl Bamber. He won the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans with Bamber and Bernhard, the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans with Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, and the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans with Buemi and Ryō Hirakawa.

He formerly competed in Formula One for Scuderia Toro Rosso, making his debut at the 2017 United States Grand Prix.

After a season in Formula Toyota New Zealand, Hartley moved to Europe, competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC). He finished 14th and 10th in the Drivers' Championship in the Eurocup and North European Cup respectively, taking a podium position at Anderstorp in the latter. In his second year in Formula Renault, he stayed in the Eurocup, but moved from the NEC to the Italian championship. He took three wins in the Eurocup and three podiums in the Italian championship, and took the championship title in the Eurocup.

In 2007 Hartley also made his Formula Three debut in the Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder event, finishing 4th. This resulted in a test with A1 Team New Zealand and the role of the rookie driver for the series. In 2008, he competed in the British Formula 3 Championship for Carlin Motorsport, winning five times, and eventually finished the championship in third. He also competed in eight races in the Formula Three Euroseries for Carlin and RC Motorsport, and achieved two finishes in the points, although he was ineligible for points. In non-championship races, Hartley finished fifth at the Masters of Formula 3, and third at the Macau Grand Prix. After crashing in the qualification race, he started 20th on the grid and recorded the fastest race lap.

He stayed with Carlin for the full F3 Euroseries in 2009, finishing eleventh despite missing two rounds due to Formula Renault 3.5 Series commitments. In that series, Hartley competed for the defending champion Tech 1 Racing team, and ended fifteenth in the championship.

He was signed at Tech 1 for a full season of Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010, where he was partnered by Australian and fellow Red Bull Junior driver, Daniel Ricciardo. During the series' summer break it was announced that Hartley had been dropped from the Red Bull Junior Team. His seat was taken by British Formula 3 championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne.

Despite the loss of his Red Bull backing, Hartley made his GP2 Series début at Monza in September, replacing Vladimir Arabadzhiev at the Scuderia Coloni team. He scored a point in the season finale at Yas Marina to place 27th in the championship.

For 2011, Hartley returned to Formula Renault 3.5, driving alongside Jan Charouz for the Gravity–Charouz Racing team. He also returned to GP2 for the eighth round of the series at Spa-Francorchamps, replacing Kevin Mirocha and driving alongside Johnny Cecotto Jr. in the Ocean Racing Technology team, for whom he had tested before the start of the season. He finished in fifth place in his first race with the team, and 19th in the overall championship.

Hartley began the 2012 season without a drive, but returned to Ocean for the second round of the championship in Bahrain in place of Jon Lancaster. After the two rounds in Bahrain, he was in turn replaced by Víctor Guerin. He finished 25th in the championship.

The Kiwi remained with Murphy for the following year's ELMS season, whilst also signing on for a campaign at Starworks Motorsport in the US-based Rolex Sports Car Series. He scored a win apiece in both championships, with his impressive pace being proven by four fastest laps across the ELMS season.

Ahead of the 2014 season, Porsche announced Hartley as a factory driver, a duty he would fulfill by driving a Porsche 919 Hybrid in the WEC. Over the next four years, he won the 2015 and 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship. He also won the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans and placed second in 2015 sharing the car with drivers including Timo Bernhard, former Formula One driver Mark Webber and fellow Kiwi Earl Bamber.

For the season, Hartley was appointed as official reserve driver for both the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams. However, unable to get his mandatory superlicence approved until April 2009, he was replaced in this role by retired F1 driver David Coulthard for the first races in Melbourne and Sepang. Hartley made his debut as reserve and test driver at the Spanish Grand Prix on 8 May. He was the first New Zealander to achieve F1 driver status since Mike Thackwell in 1984. He was replaced in the role by fellow Red Bull Junior driver Jaime Alguersuari for the second half of the season. However Hartley did not return to the reserve driver role with Red Bull and Toro Rosso following Jaime Alguersuari's promotion to a race seat, preferring to focus on his F3 and Renault World Series. David Coulthard again took over the role.

For the season, Hartley was again appointed official reserve driver for both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. He shared the reserve driver duties with his Formula Renault 3.5 teammate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo. The two drivers shared the duties on a race-by-race basis until round six of the championship. Following this race, Hartley's support from Red Bull was dropped, based on the fact he had not won a race in his season and a half in the championship.

On 13 September 2012, he participated in the young driver test at Magny-Cours. He drove 87 laps for Mercedes on the final day, setting the third quickest time behind Jules Bianchi (Scuderia Ferrari) and Rodolfo González (Force India).

On 26 November 2018 it was confirmed that Hartley would not continue with Toro Rosso for 2019. He was replaced by Thai driver Alexander Albon.

Hartley left the Dragon Racing team with immediate effect in July 2020, having scored a lone top-ten finish at Diriyah.

Hartley would continue with Toyota into its new Hypercar regulations. A win at the opening two rounds at Spa-Francorchamps and Portimão opened the #8 Toyota's season strongly, but Hybrid issues caused Hartley's car to spend much of the race in the pits, finishing fourth in class. Hartley's team would finish the season without coming below second in the final three races, although this would not be enough to close in on the sister #7 car, which would take their second consecutive world endurance championship title.

Hartley was ineligible to score points.

     

As Hartley was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.
     

Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
     

As Hartley was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.