Hartley: I wanted to focus on racing

Saturday 4th July 2009

Brendon Hartley has thanked Red Bull for the time spent as their third and reserve driver during this year's campaign but concedes he had to give up the role to focus on racing.

The team announced earlier this week that Hartley would be stepping aside to make way for Jaime Alguersuari starting at next weekend's German GP.

The New Zealander, however, isn't upset by the decision, admitting that he needs to focus on his racing. Hartley races for both Carlin Motorsport in the Formula 3 Euro Series and Tech 1 Racing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.

"That's the reason we decided to stop," he told Autosport. "I learnt so much doing (the 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. 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."

Post to del.icio.us

E-mail Article Print-Friendly Version Subscribe to News RSS Feed