Eric Thompson: Hartley still in frame even if Red Bull rumours are true

Brendon Hartley. Photo / Supplied

Rumour and innuendo suggest young New Zealand Formula One hopeful Brendon Hartley has been axed from the Red Bull Racing team. He hasn't been axed from Red Bull Racing per se, more he's been let go from the Red Bull junior development programme - not the F1 team.

What a lot of people don't understand is that Hartley is not a Formula One driver - he has a Super Licence enabling him to race in a sanctioned F1 race, and although he may have driven an F1 car on numerous occasions, driving an F1 car does not make you an F1 driver.

All that's happened is he's lost his World Series by Renault (WSR) 3.5-litre drive and he may yet be taken on by the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, or any number of other teams.

Bob McMurray spent 30-odd years in F1 and has seen drivers come and go and reckons Hartley's career at the sharp end of motor racing may not yet be over.

"Brendon is responsible for putting one of the very fastest cars on the grid and has a lot of credibility and credence within the actual Red Bull Formula One team. If it really is the end of Brendon in 3.5-litre [WSR] he can be very proud of the fact he helped to develop the very fastest car on the grid," he said.

Hartley and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo were supposed to alternate as reserve drivers at each Grand Prix for the Red Bull F1 cars and also race in the WSR championship. While Ricciardo has done very well with two wins Hartley has had an up and down season that would make seasoned commercial fishermen seasick. And as we all know, you're only as good as your last race and Hartley, sixth on the table, just hasn't managed to fire regularly enough.

He's struggled to qualify at the front of the grid and no matter how much race pace you have, coming from eighth or so is too big an ask, even for the talented Hartley.

Where Hartley really shines is in his simulator work. The F1 team and engineers regard him very highly and he's been doing most of the development work for next season's RB7 car. Therefore, it appears mighty odd to bin someone whose head is full of all this year's and next year's go-fast information. I'd imagine someone like Force India, Lotus or HRT would love to root around inside Hartley's brain to find out why the Red Bull cars are so fast and who's to say Hartley won't stay with Red Bull as a full-time simulator test driver?

"Brendon has been a good working driver for Red Bull and people in Formula One don't forget that and a good test driver is hard to find and he could still be hot property," said McMurray.

Former Ferrari F1 driver Chris Amon said that although he's sad the young Kiwi has been let go from the WSR side of things, he doesn't think Hartley's F1 career is by any means over.

"Quite often what looks like a huge negative can turn out to be a positive and this is by no means the end of his career," said Amon.

Red Bull has not had the best of years what with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber crashing into each other, Webber using another car as a launch pad and "Red Bull gives you wings" - well giving Vettel Webber's wings anyway.

On top of that, they released a press statement saying Sebastien Buemi had resigned when he hadn't at that time.

The right hand at Red Bull should go and find the left hand and introduce themselves to each other.