Background
Hartley was born in a family well integrated within motorsport.
Hartley was born in a family well integrated within motorsport.
In 2003, the thirteen-year-old got his first major break as he won that year's New Zealand Formula Ford Festival which resulted in him getting a drive for the following year's Formula Ford championship. After a season in Formula Toyota New Zealand, Hartley moved to Europe, competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup. In 2007 Hartley also made his Formula Three debut in the Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder event. In 2008, Hartley competed in the British Formula Three Championship for Carlin Motorsport winning five times and eventually finished the championship in third. He has been confirmed at Tech 1 for a full season of Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010. Despite the loss of his Red Bull backing, Hartley made his GP2 Series début at Monza in September. For 2011, Hartley returned to Formula Renault 3.5. He also returned to GP2 for the eighth round of the series at Spa-Francorchamps. Hartley began the 2012 season without a drive, but returned to Ocean for the second round of the championship in Bahrain in place of Jon Lancaster. In February 2008, aged 18, Hartley got his first taste of Formula One. He was invited to perform a show run for Red Bull Racing in Riyadh. From here he performed the initial three-day shake-down test for Scuderia Toro Rosso's 2008 spec car, the STR3. For the 2009 season, Hartley was appointed as official reserve driver for both the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams. For the 2010 season, Hartley was again appointed official reserve driver for both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. On 13 September 2012, he participated in the young driver test at Magny-Cours. He said the simulator development work and the test drive with AMG Mercedes would give him a new opportunity to get back into Formula One.