Motorsport: Meet the Kiwi guiding Hartley in F1 breakout

Kiwi Graham Watson (left) and Austrian Franz Tost are helping Brendon Hartley at Toro Rosso. Photo / Getty Images

The man guiding Brendon Hartley's fledgling Formula One career is fellow Kiwi Graham Watson, Toro Rosso's team manager.

Hartley's first race as an F1 driver was almost picture perfect, especially when you consider that team principal Franz Tost said before the race in Austin, Texas, if Hartley finished 13th or around there he will have done well.

The 27-year-old delivered and now gets to go racing again this weekend at round 18 of the 2017 championship at the Mexican Grand Prix.

"Brendon is a talented young man, but had been out of the programme for some time," Watson told the Weekend Herald on the eve of Hartley's second yahoo in the big time.

"Helmut [Marko] has a massive eye for these guys and he knows who can drive and who can't.

"What Brendon did in America was a bloody good job - there's no way around that.

"I first meet him on the Wednesday and said to him 'if you're sitting in the garage on high stands with all the corners hanging off you're not learning. Don't worry about breaking the car we have lots of spares; the truth is you've got to be on the track to learn'.

"My advice was to take time to learn the car and controls, then get going and not worry about lap times and then give it a nudge in qualifying and then finish the race," said Watson.

"He took that conservative approach and it's clearly obvious he has a lot more time in him. He's very mature in his approach and brings the car home in 13th place, so every single box we wanted ticked.

"He didn't even flat spot a tyre, which is unheard off in a rookie. And don't forget he set the eighth fastest lap time in the race. It's a hell of a thing to achieve. His race was basically destroyed by being behind Lance Stroll as he was clearly faster.

Kiwi Graham Watson (left) and Austrian Franz Tost are helping Brendon Hartley at Toro Rosso. Photo / Getty Images

"His engine was about 30kW down on the Mercedes engine so even with DRS open he wasn't able to get past Stroll.

"You have to put in context, it's quite unprecedented - he'd never driven the car, hadn't driven a single seater in years, had a poor simulation test, but still did really well. It was completely off the wall and hence why he's back in the car this weekend because he's got what it takes."

One thing, if he keeps a straight car, in his favour this weekend, is that Hartley has raced at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in the past in the World Endurance Championship.

"To be honest, we're not going to be that strong in Mexico with our chassis," said Watson.

"We struggled last year but Brendon likes the track and has gone well here before. All he [Hartley] has to do is do something similar to the USA.

"There are no massive expectations on him. He's got to keep doing what's he's doing and keep growing.

"His only point of reference will be Pierre Gasly. It's your teammate who becomes the benchmark, and if he can be close that will be more than enough indication to say that Brendon is going in the right direction," said Watson.

Number of tasks to racing

What a few people may have missed in the euphoria of New Zealand getting our first Formula One driver since 1984, is that it's not as easy getting the bloke into a modern F1 car as it used to be.

There's getting a custom seat made, paperwork, helmets, licences, race suits among other things.

"People go 'Oh so you're changing' and think it's pretty simple," said Toro Ross manager Graham Watson. "That's just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more that goes on. The Brendon thing came around very quickly.

"I was sitting in the Dubai airport lounge at 4am on the way back from Japan when Franz [Tost] asked me what I thought about Brendon Hartley driving.

"I thought he was joking for a moment and I said 'I suppose so if that is what you want'. Franz said there were two or three in the mix but Brendon was coming out on top.

"By the time I got back [team base] it had been confirmed and it just went mental from there. There are so many regulations that stipulate certain time frames that you have to lodge paperwork and other stuff.

"We contravened most of them and were so far outside the window of the amount of time it's supposed to take. We had to get a superlicence, which Brendon obviously got without any problem, then there was the contract recognition board where you have to lodge his contract which involves lawyers and then you have to let the FIA know.

"On top of that Brendon wanted car No28 [the number he has had since his days in karts] but we didn't have enough time to get FIA approval so went with 39 [although 28 has now been approved]. You can't just drop someone in the car.

Hartley has raced in No28 from an early age. It was his father's racing number and Hartley says it's just a coincidence his initials are the second and eighth letters of the alphabet.

"We had to get branded overalls made, which normally take 20 days, but we needed them in less than a week," Watson added. "I then asked if Brendon had an F1 helmet; he didn't, just a sportscar one.

"We had to then contact Bell in New Zealand to get them to deliver a new one to Brendon's painter in Auckland, get it painted and then delivered to Austin. It arrived on Thursday before the race."