2018 Report Card: Gasly & Hartley

Hartley, a double WEC world champion, struggled to come to terms with the current era Formula 1 after years of high-tech traction-control that was bolted onto his Porsche LMP1 prototype but not on his STR13. He came good late in the season, but it was a case of too little too late.

Gasly was solid and bagged 29 of the team's 33 points, compared to his teammate's paltry four. His deserved promotion to Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen is sure to be one of several intriguing sideshows on the menu for next year.

Herewith, along with a selection of the drivers’ more memorable quotes, are the Gasly and Hartley Report Cards:

BS: A surprise inclusion in the Toro Rosso lineup for the end of the 2017 season, Hartley was always walking a particularly fraught tightrope, and it seems that after 2018, that act has come to an end. The former Le Mans winner was just never able to find the pace to cement his spot in F1, and while there's no denying he bore the brunt of the Honda engine's issues, it doesn't excuse the fact that teammate Pierre Gasly scored more than seven times the points with the same equipment, while dominating in all the head-to-head categories (15-6 in qualifying, 7-4 in races). Unsurprisingly his team have opted for new blood in 2019 and barring a miracle reprieve, it looks like his time as an F1 driver is over.

PV: Wearing my F1 fan hat, I really was hoping Brendon would crack, all-around nice guy with a great pedigree but, in the end, it was disappointing to see the guy struggle for whatever reason - and I am sure there were many. He was thrown into the deep end, his comeback tale a remarkable one, but instead of swimming fast he was treading water too long. That he was surprised his seat was under threat suggests a head-in-the-sand naivety, after all, when he was axed it was no real shock to anyone but him, apparently.

Rating: 3/10

BS: Set to move up to the big time with Red Bull in 2019, the jury is still out on whether Gasly can be a top-shelf driver, but in 2018, he at least he did nothing to dissuade that notion. Outdoing Brendon Hartley across the board, there's no doubt he was the superior driver at Toro Rosso, but that said, Honda's decision to use 2018 as essentially a testing year, meant that amongst the wider field, he often went unnoticed. Still, if his raw pace carries over to his new team, and he can have more races like Bahrain – P6 in qualy, P4 in the race – there's every reason to hope he can be more than just Max Verstappen's sidekick.

PV: Next year we will see really how good Pierre is as he takes on Max, as much as he did impress during his rookie season his big test looms. His drive to fourth place in Bahrain was stellar and gave a flash of potential greatness, providing him with the challenge of delivering those moments on a more regular basis. To me the highly-rated Frenchman's temperament is a tad suspect, maybe he is a little too anxious to prove himself and also prone to occasional Red Mist moments. These kids grow up so fast these days, that by February when testing begins, he may well have conquered those quirks. He passed his first big test with flying colours, trouncing his Toro Rosso teammate, now a much tougher chapter faces him.

Rating: 7/10

Note: Ben Stevens (BS) and Paul Velasco (PV)

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/04/16/gasly-i-apologise-to-brendon-for-the-contact-we-had/