"The tough times are where you learn": Brendon Hartley on data, risk and the evolution of Hypercar racing
Toyota Racing's Brendon Hartley spoke exclusively with DIVEBOMB during the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)'s 6 Hours of Fuji round. The New Zealander revealed just how much Hypercar racing has changed since its debut in 2021.
Speed is just the baseline
Hartley has sampled various prototype cars since WEC's inaugural season in 2012. The 36-year-old has driven LMP2 cars, piloted the legendary Porsche 919 Hybrid to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in 2017 and Toyota's TS050 Hybrid in 2020 to take his second Le Mans triumph three years later.
His Hypercar era began in 2021 with the GR010 Hybrid, when he finished runner-up in the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers' Championship to his teammates in the No.7 sister car, before taking the crown the following year alongside his third Le Mans victory.
Having driven 15–20 years of high-performance, downforce-based cars, Hartley argued that the driving style can be "quite similar." The details that had to be fine-tuned when transitioning from the 919 to the TS050 and the GR010, however, resulted in a different driving style to suit the cars' quirks.
The four-time WEC champion argued that good times made everything seem easy, but tough times determine how drivers bounce back.
"The idea is it's always to learn; we never stop learning.
"That means also learning from the tough times; that's a big part of the skill. In the good times, everything seems easy, and you learn the most in the tough times.
"But I think my whole career is a learning process. I'm still learning today. Maybe there are some things I do better now, but I did some things better 10 years ago, but we're constantly adapting as sports people."
Hartley and the Hypercar era: Safety Cars, close grids and calculated risk
In endurance racing, drivers take on many risks when they head out to the track. One-lap pace is different to consistent pace that wins Le Mans or the championship.
"One lapse in judging a situation and taking too much risk, which results in a crash, can bring the whole season down.
"There's a real balance, particularly now that it's so much more competitive, you know, sometimes you have to go for the moves. You have to take that risk. But reading all those situations that come with experience and weighing up their risk and reward is a big balancing act."
With eight manufacturers currently competing in the Hypercar class, Hartley routinely battles rivals like Ferrari, Cadillac, and BMW. FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has dubbed this the "golden age of endurance racing", and the competition will only intensify with the arrival of Ford and McLaren.
Hartley argued that more manufacturers competing does not change how he thinks about extracting performance from the car.
"The organisers are now putting a lot more safety cars, which means quite often the races are coming more down to the wire.
"There's often a few resets during the race that change [everything] a little bit. In the past, if you managed to make fewer mistakes at the beginning [and] get a gap generally, that was hard to overcome, but now they seem to throw a safety car for anything, which brings the race back a lot.
"I'd say that's changed, and then because there are more cars, you often find yourself in a situation where you need to fight the other cars harder, looking in the mirrors [and] looking forward at how to find track position."
With tighter competition and a larger grid, the stakes are significantly higher than they were during the LMP1 era. But while fighting for victory has become vastly more difficult, Hartley welcomed the influx of new manufacturers, emphasising that a crowded field delivers much better action for the fans.
A big part of succeeding in endurance racing is getting the most out of the machine. That means drivers' feedback and input could be detrimental to whether they can consistently stand on the podium across the season.
"Sometimes the drivers' feedback is not always seen in the data, and what was seen in the data is not always felt by the driver.
"Having an experienced team and an open-mindedness to try and figure out and navigate that is important. Often the driver picks up things that haven't initially been seen in the data, so the engineers need to look at it in more detail, for example, but that goes both ways. It's a real team sport, and everyone needs to come together for the ultimate goal of winning the race"
One car, three drivers: The art of compromise
Hartley has shared the No.8 car with Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa since 2022. Their prolific partnership has yielded numerous race victories, highlighted by back-to-back Hypercar World Endurance Drivers' Championship titles in 2022 and 2023.
Continuity has been a theme for this side of the garage, and after five seasons together, Hartley claimed that the trio has always got each other's backs, and any input acquired propels the No.8 car forward.
"That's what's unique about endurance racing from other forms of motorsport, where your teammates are effectively your number one competitors.
"You try not to share that information with them. But in this case, you share that load, and you're trying to help each other, which is a big part of the fun. We share the work [and we] share the success."
But sharing the same car and knowing each other for years does not mean it automatically results in a car that fits everyone's preferred style. Sometimes one person's driving style will alter the car's balance and direction. While the trio do not always agree over setup, Hartley stressed that "We will always find a way to try and come up with the best compromise."
A dramatic triumph at Fuji saw the No.8 car withstand a late-race onslaught from the No.36 Alpine to claim a spectacular home victory. With that win, Toyota and the No.8 trio now sit atop the Hypercar championship standings with only two rounds left on the calendar.
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