F1: Toro Rosso Looking to Replace Hartley

Brendon Hartley seems to have finally tested the patience of Toro Rosso’s head honchos as reports state that Red Bull’s sister team have approached McLaren to sign their test driver, Lando Norris to drive for them for the rest of the F1 season.

Hartley has not enjoyed the best of starts to the F1 season so far. In seven races, he has finished outside the points everywhere save for Azerbaijan, where a series of retirements enabled him to secure tenth position.

In the Bahrain Grand Prix, as teammate Gasly drove the race of his life to finish fourth, Hartley was languishing in 17 place and was also down a lap by the end. His season’s highlight has been two clashes with his own teammate; one at China and the other one coming in Azerbaijan.

Hartley was a part of the Red Bull junior drivers’ program long ago but was not promoted to an F1 seat. He moved to endurance racing, where he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans before making a comeback to F1 last season with Toro Rosso. However, it has all been downhill from there for the 28-year-old.

Toro Rosso have lost patience with Hartley and want to make Norris their second driver as early as next month’s Austrian Grand Prix, provided McLaren give the go-ahead. But McLaren are unwilling to make a deal.

A McLaren spokesperson told Press Association Sport, “We are not surprised that other teams approach our drivers. They clearly believe they are as talented as we do.”

McLaren themselves are unsure of their driver line-up for next season, with Alonso not looking too happy in F1 and Vandoorne struggling to perform this season. Toro Rosso had proposed that Norris be loaned to them for two seasons and the second season is what McLaren want to avoid.

Lando Norris has been earmarked as the ‘next Lewis Hamilton’ as the British driver has been impressive in the junior categories. He won last year’s Formula 3 series and currently holds a 27-point lead in the Formula 2 championship despite only making his debut in April.