Inside Line: Is Hartley already on his way out?

In 2008, Hartley was one of the hottest properties on the fringes of Formula 1. He had Red Bull backing and looked a shoe-in for a Toro Rosso seat in 2009, but a spate of bad form and his clear lack of readiness for the top flight, at the time, resulted in him being ditched by the energy drinks organisation.

The New Zealander resurrected his career thereafter, which in retrospect is a huge achievement in itself, and almost a decade later he was gifted a second chance with Toro Rosso, he deserved it - he had by now accumulated two WEC world titles and a Le Mans 24-Hours victory.

A call-up late last year to replace Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull junior team was his second chance at the big league. He was a welcome addition to the field. All around nice guy, articulate, modest and of good humour. But on track, he simply has not delivered.

Some blame his style of driving not being suited to a current generation Formula 1 car. Hartley's Porsche LMP1 was an awesome piece of kit and WEC rules permit traction control. By his own admission, he was re-teaching himself to drive with his right foot again after years of point and stomp.

But on Saturday, during FP3 for the Spanish Grand Prix, his plight got worse after he crashed late in the session at the high-speed Turn 9, his car was ripped in half and was not repairable in time for qualifying.

Reflecting on the incident, Hartley said, "I had a crash in the first WEC round in 2016, but it wasn't such a big impact in the end. Really such a big impact like that, it's potentially the biggest one I've had to be honest. I don't now the exact number [of Gs], but it's probably one of the biggest crashes I've had."

Meanwhile, it is being said that Toro Rosso are losing patience with the incident-prone New Zealander. Prior to the FP3 shunt, he has twice had near collisions with his teammate, perhaps no fault of his own, but coupled to driving errors the team have on their telemetry and no sign of real improvement - a replacement is being talked about.

Red Bull's pipeline of junior drivers has run dry, however Mercedes protege and former Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein has come up in paddock gossip as an alternative.

Would be interesting to be a fly on the wall when Mercedes and Red Bull sit down to thrash out that deal!

As much as I am a fan of Hartley and want him to excel in F1, he has yet to convince. Not many drivers of the modern era (eighties onwards) have made their way to Formula 1 via sportscar racing, is this the main reason why?

Whatever happens, the next few races will be telling for Hartley's future in F1 as Wehrlein looms, but if Red Bull have real balls (or wings or whatever) they would give Sebastien Buemi or Jean-Eric Vergne a second chance.