Hartley can still ‘hold head high’ if he loses F1 seat at end of 2018

Brendon Hartley believes he can be proud of the job he has done at Toro Rosso during his first full season in Formula 1.

The Kiwi has endured a tough 2018 campaign and heads into the second half of the season with just two points to his name, while teammate Pierre Gasly has been one of the standout performers on the grid with notable results coming in Bahrain and Hungary en route to amassing 26 points so far.

A plethora of crashes including big incidents in Canada and at Silverstone have marred Hartley’s campaign, leaving his future in the sport uncertain. Toro Rosso had an approach for Lando Norris knocked back by McLaren earlier in the year, with the Formula 2 title contender linked with taking Hartley’s place.

But Hartley insists he is happy with his performances across the season so far despite not picking up the desired results.

“If Formula 1 finishes at the end of the year or whenever I’ll hold my head high,” Hartley said. “I know the job I’m doing behind the scenes and I know that I’m giving everything that I can.

“Not everyone always knows the full story,” he added. “But I feel in a good place and I hope I can consolidate the momentum I’ve had in the last weekends. Even if I didn’t always have the result I actually feel like I was very strong and I hope I can get some more results and more points on the board in the next races.”

When asked if he had the feeling his seat was under threat, Hartley replied: “No not at all. I guess it’s the fact two months ago I was getting asked questions every second if my F1 career was over.

“I guess it changed my attitude a little bit and I feel very strongly about it,” he added. “A lot of things are out of my control and I feel very content that I am doing the best that I can and hopefully the results will follow.”

Hartley revealed he has sought advice from former Porsche World Endurance Championship teammate and ex-F1 driver Mark Webber on a number of occasions since joining the F1 grid.

“We chat quite a lot,” he said. “I think all through my career I’ve learned that it’s good to take advice from as many people as you can and when you have someone like Mark who’s happy to pick up the phone or have a meal and discuss everything I try and take full advantage of that. He’s a good friend and always has something interesting to say or advice to give or compare notes.

“I think he saw many things in his time in Formula 1. I was very lucky to have him as a team mate in [WEC] as well. Especially off the track, managing situations, how to deal with the team, mentally how to deal with the pressures that are involved in Formula 1. There’s a lot of advice he can offer and he’s been helpful.”

Hartley said Webber also offered advice about how to deal with a constant stream of rumours.

“Even early in the Porsche days it was very clear to me he wasn’t too fazed about what was written or rumours, just focused on the things that were important. Having a larger view, seeing the bigger picture,” he explained.

“I think I’ve got better and better at that. I think especially this year being under a situation with a bit of pressure, coming from all angles, from the media or whoever, actually it has made me feel a lot stronger and made me realise where my energy needs to be.

“I actually feel really good about the situation regardless of what’s written or not written. It’s made things a lot clearer for me on where my mind needs to be focussed and how I need to feel.”