Motorsport: Hartley has a head start

Brendon Hartley. Photo / Getty Images.

He is the six million dollar man who is still short of a buck.

Brendon Hartley is yet to secure a drive for 2011 but believes a deal is just around the corner.

The 21-year-old, who was dropped by Red Bull's Formula 1 extended team mid-year, says several teams want him and it's just a matter of finding the money to help secure a drive.

Aspiring drivers, regardless of ability, usually need to find their own sponsorship to secure a seat, and it's often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I want to be in a good team and I'm optimistic it will happen," Hartley says. "I'm focusing on a couple of teams at the higher end of the scale. I'm one of very few who have the experience I do."

Hartley hopes to race in either the GP2 series or World Series Renault (WSR) this year, both seen as stepping stones to F1. He has been offered drives at a reduced budget, where the teams absorb up to 50 per cent of the cost, but the sums are still exorbitant, with GP2 in the millions per annum and WSR close to seven figures.

"In the current economic climate, it's tough to raise sponsorship but we are making progress," he says. "A lot of people are talking about me and a lot of teams want me, which is half the battle. It makes it a lot easier to find the money."

Red Bull invested more than $6 million in Hartley over four years, after signing him as a 16-year-old. But the clock is ticking and most believe he has two more years to break into F1, which is increasingly becoming a young man's sport.

"After all those drives with Red Bull, I am in a unique position but to carry on, I will need some backing," Hartley says.

"It's difficult but not impossible. I am still setting my goals very high."

If he's unable to grab a seat with one of the top GP2 or WSR teams (he has tested with GP2 teams Racing Engineering and Ocean and WSR outfit P1 Motorsport, among others), he will step down the ladder.

"The good thing about WSR is that the cars are essentially all the same," he says. "While there are obvious advantages with the bigger outfits, in theory you can win with any team. It's not night and day like F1."

He is also willing to downgrade to another category if it keeps the dream alive.

"If I can't sort what I want [in GP2 or WSR], maybe I will need to take a step back to take two steps forward," he says. "There are always other options."

The Palmerston North-born Hartley faces an uncertain future, which must be challenging when he remembers just how close he was to the big time.

"At one stage, it was between me and another guy to be the reserve [F1] driver," he recalls, "and he got it. It could easily have been me sitting in the F1 car but it didn't happen. That's life, you have to learn. We all make mistakes [and] some of us make more mistakes than others. I'm young in the greater scheme of things and there's no reason why I can't still arrive at F1 and reach my goals."

There were 20 young drivers when Hartley joined the Red Bull programme. He says about 30 came and went over his time and now just four remain on the books. Despite his candour, it has obviously been hard to face reality and let go.

"I'm still wearing the Red Bull helmet and the link and contact is still there," he says. "The only difference is they are not funding my racing any more. I'm not bitter in any way. I understand the situation and can't thank Red Bull enough.

"In the last six months, I've been racing as much as ever and nothing has really changed. I'm enjoying life and enjoying fighting to stay here. I'm not down about it - I'm enjoying the battle."

Hartley finished sixth at a GP2 meet in Abu Dhabi in December and has shown promising results in GP2 and WSR testing for several teams over the past few months.

He has returned to New Zealand and will enjoy the summer weather before returning to the UK in mid-January.

"I've gone from being pasty white to pasty brown," he jokes.

There have been plenty of late nights on the phone back to Europe and he has also been pit crew for his brother, who drives a sprintcar in North Island speedway meets.

After some coaxing from his sibling, Hartley will make his speedway debut this week.

"We have always talked about having a go," he says. "My brother has a spare car and it should be a bit of fun."

It's not the real drive he wants, however.