Hartley Gave Up Red Bull Role on His Own

New Zealand's Brendon Hartley revealed that it was him who wanted out from his test/reserve driver position within the Red Bull outfit and not his team releasing him from his F1 duties. After the media presented the news that Hartley was replaced by Spanish teenager Jaime Alguersuari at Milton Keynes, the New Zealander felt the need to confirm the move happened because of his own will.

According to Hartley, his busy schedule this year would have made it impossible to cope with his reserve role at Red Bull, so he decided to focus solely on his racing commitments for the ongoing season. That includes a full-time drive in the both the Formula Renault 3.5 series and the highly-competitive F3 Euroseries.

Hartley admitted that the prospect of having no spare weekends until November this year was the main reason why he chose to let go of his reserve seat with Red Bull.

“That's the reason we decided to stop,” he revealed for the New Zealand press agency NZPA.

“I learned so much doing F1 duties and it was such a great experience for me to see how everything works, but to continue would have meant zero weekends free until November. I really appreciated doing it, but I haven't really had a good result this year so I need to focus on my racing,” added the New Zealander, who took on this role with Red Bull after the Spanish GP this season.

Hartley reiterated his desire to one day come back to Formula One, only this time as a race driver. Although many have credited Alguersuari with a chance to join Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2010, thanks to his new job as test driver for the Red Bull backed teams, Hartley argued that the testing job is rarely a high point when wanting to secure a race seat.

“Jaime will have that opportunity to learn now, but I am not sure what options there will be for him to get into the car,” added Hartley.