Formula 1 | Toro Rosso confirms Hartley for the United States Grand Prix

New Zealander Brendon Hartley will race for Scuderia Toro Rosso in the next round of the Formula 1 World Championship, the United States Grand Prix in Austin, while Pierre Gasly will take part in the last race of the Super Formula championship in Suzuka, Japan.

Brendon's last test with the team dates back to 2009. Eight years later, he will participate in his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, at the Circuit of the Americas, alongside Daniil Kvyat. After testing with Scuderia Toro Rosso, Brendon gained experience in several categories, including the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, the GP2 Series and other series driving sports cars. For the last three years he has raced successfully with Posche, in the LMP1 category of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship. In 2015 he became World Champion in the WEC, together with his teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard. In June this year he won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans and is currently leading the 2017 World Endurance Championship, with three races to go: the next stage will be the 6 Hours of Fuji, in Japan. Immediately afterwards, he will go to Texas for his first F1 weekend... a well-deserved reward that has come after eight years: in short, never say never!

Brendon Hartley's hot statements: “What an incredible feeling! This opportunity was a real surprise, but until now I had never given up on my ambition of reaching F1, a dream since I was a child. Since the period in which I was the reserve driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso I have matured and learned a lot: they were difficult years which, however, made me stronger and more determined. I want to say a huge thank you to Red Bull for making this a reality and to Porsche for allowing me to make this commitment at the same time as the World Endurance Championship. COTA is a track that I really like and where I raced just recently. I don't want to burden my F1 debut with excessive expectations, but I feel really ready to face it."

Here are the words of Franz Tost: “Scuderia Toro Rosso is pleased to announce that Brendon Hartley – who has already been part of the Red Bull family for a long time and in different categories, as well as having been test driver and reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso itself – will return to race for us in Austin. Brendon returns to the team as a winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and is currently leading the LMP1 classification of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, a category in which he already triumphed in 2015. We are really happy to have him back with us. With all the experience accumulated over the years, we are convinced that he will do an excellent job”.