Hartley offers Kvyat some career advice

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Brendon Hartley has offered some motor racing career tips to Daniil Kvyat, the driver whose place he took at Toro Rosso.

Kvyat was abruptly axed from the team and the Red Bull programme after last year's US Grand Prix. He will now serve as Ferrari's development driver in 2018.

Hartley knows what that's like, having himself been dropped from the same driver development scheme in 2010. He subsequently went on to find success in the FIA World Endurance Championship instead.

It was after Hartley clinched victory in last year's Le Mans 24 Hours with Porsche that Red Bull called up the Kiwi and offered him a chance to race in Formula 1.

Hartley has since admitted that he wasn't ready for Formula 1 when he was 18. He said the time he spent honing his skills in WEC had been vital for preparing him for his out-of-the-blue second chance in F1.

"Endurance racing taught me a lot," he told ESPN. "Because against two top teammates you're in the same car, there's no hiding, and then you start learning off each other.

'Unnecessary pressure' led to Kvyat's demise - Tost

"You really have this open environment where, if one guy is quicker, you have to accept that very quickly.

"Say 'yeah, he was quicker today', what's he doing, let's chat to him and work it out. That for me taught me a lot.

"There's a bit of respect in there as well because you do your best to deliver your best performance every single day, but actually accepting that on a given day your teammate can do a better job than you.

"Endurance racing teaches you that. It can definitely help you out being a more rounded driver."

Asked if a driver in Kvyat's situation would benefit from a similar experience, Hartley replied: "I think yes to all the above.

"I think young drivers are sometimes very guilty of immediately blaming the equipment or the team, rather than looking inward a little bit."

And Kvyat could well get the chance to try his hand at endurace racing in 2018. SMP Racing founder Boris Rotenberg wants to see Daniil Kvyat join his LMP2 squad at Le Mans.

"I do not know how busy he will be at Ferrari, but I would be glad to see him in our team," Rotenberg told Sport FM in January.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.