The ex-F1 driver finding his fifth new home in a year

From the moment Porsche announced it would leave the World Endurance Championship's LMP1 class at the end of 2017, things were always going to change for Brendon Hartley. And the twists and turns have been plenty.

Since Le Mans 24 Hours and later WEC LMP1 title honours in 2017, he's taken in a surprise Formula 1 debut with Toro Rosso, and then a full year of grand prix racing with the team before being unceremoniously dumped from the Red Bull programme for a second time at the end of 2018.

This year he's been a fresh face at an IMSA team - finishing third at Sebring for Action Express Racing - and two squads in LMP1. First, on the same weekend as his IMSA cameo, he competed for SMP Racing in the WEC round at Sebring, and then he replaced Fernando Alonso in Toyota's LMP1 squad for the 2019-20 season, winning the most recent round at Fuji.

Over the same 12-month period, he's been employed as a Ferrari F1 simulator driver and now he's about to embark on a rookie campaign in a completely new category: Formula E.

Hartley will race with the Dragon Racing squad alongside Audi factory driver and 2019 DTM runner-up Nico Muller. But initially, it looked as if he would have a different fifth home of 2019, as Hartley helped Porsche - which had kept him on as a factory driver during his time in F1 - with its own preparations for its FE debut in 2019-20.

This meant helping Porsche's first confirmed FE racer, Neel Jani, with the early private running of what would become the 99X Electric package.

Hartley was clear he was keen to be a part of Porsche's first FE campaign, and even when he was announced at Toyota he still felt racing for the two manufacturers was possible. After all, his new team-mate in the #8 TS050 Hybrid - Sebastien Buemi - also races for Nissan in FE.

But Porsche ultimately picked Andre Lotterer, who had been a part of its LMP1 programme for the final year of that project, to partner Jani. There was little surprise at its choice - it had long been suggested that the manufacturer wanted at least one of its two new FE drivers to have previous experience in the electric championship.

Lotterer's two seasons racing with DS Techeetah, as well as his familiarity with what is essentially the same team that carried over from LMP1, won him the seat. But Hartley did not have long to wait before his FE move became a reality in any case.

Just three weeks after Lotterer's switch to Porsche was announced, Dragon revealed that Hartley would be the first driver in its 2019-20 line-up.

"It all happened pretty quick, to be honest," says Hartley. "About a week before I knew that I wouldn't be in the Porsche there was already contact with Dragon, so the overlap was no more than two weeks discussing and not knowing. So yeah, the timing was good and I'm really happy that WEC and Formula E are possible.

"They're two great championships to be in. It's going to be tough coming in as a rookie but I'm trying to draw on all my experience that I have over the last years, together with the experience of the team, to hopefully fight towards the front."

That will mean going up against a team he was effectively a part of for six years, right since Porsche's LMP1 participation began in 2014. But that also means the end of the road for their relationship - at least for now - as Hartley explains there is "obviously a conflict if we're competing against each other".

As Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein proved last season, it is possible to come into FE, the category with arguably the best overall-talent-packed line-up in all of motorsport, and make an instant impression as a rookie

"I'd like to think I'll always be somewhat a part of the family, but contractually I won't be involved next year," he adds. "I would have loved to have taken the seat but there was never a promise and I always understood Neel was already signed, so it made sense that they took another driver with experience - a known quantity.

"So I always knew that it could have been on the cards. There was always the chance [of a race seat] - even late on into the project I was doing a good job in testing - but I think for them to take two rookies it would have been high risk.

"There's no animosity from my side and they were incredibly fair to actually allow me to go and take on an opportunity in another race team. So, I have to thank them for that and now I am really looking forward to this new project with Dragon.

"They're going to be competitive now, but I'm sure it'll be somewhat of a friendly rivalry and I'm sure I'm still welcome to go down and have a coffee and say g'day."

While Porsche did not want to have two rookie drivers for the new FE season, Dragon has taken that approach - although Muller does come with plenty of knowledge as Audi's test and reserve driver for the past two campaigns. The decision, unsurprisingly, did not go down well with its former driver Jose Maria Lopez, but the American team has signed two racers with proven track records in other categories.

Maximilian Guenther - racing for BMW Andretti in the upcoming FE season - shone on multiple occasions for Dragon in 2018-19, and it's not impossible that a fresh line-up, with new ideas and approaches, will boost a team that has not won an FE race since Jerome D'Ambrosio triumphed at Mexico City in March 2016.

"We are one of the smaller teams but we've got really motivated, clever people in the team - I don't see any reason why we can't fight for the big points," says Hartley. "Nico's got quite a bit of experience in Formula E from Audi, OK, not racing, but he's done some official testing, so we've both come with a little bit of experience in testing and there's a huge continuity of personnel in the team - it's the same engineering staff as it was last year.

"From that side, they are able to give a lot of information and get us up to speed pretty quick. Me and Nico have been working well together, and it feels like a real team already. Obviously we're going to be both fighting against each other on track, but right now we're working well together to make steps forward at every moment."

As Oliver Rowland and - in particular - Pascal Wehrlein proved last season, it is possible to come into FE, the category with arguably the best overall-talent-packed line-up in all of motorsport, and make an instant impression as a rookie.

"Everyone asks 'Are you OK [racing] outside of Formula 1?', but I think it's one of the best places you can be for competitive racing" Brendon Hartley

And Hartley and Muller have a small early advantage on this front thanks to the unique arrangement of this year's Valencia group test. For the first time, FE organised two races - each intended to test the systems need for the tweaked race format for its sixth season.

In particular, the series wanted to iron out the kinks in its prescribed energy-reduction rule for following race interruptions before travelling to this month's season opener in Riyadh. In addition to the old cliche of rule changes helping new drivers, it also gave the new Dragon racers a genuine chance to size up the competition - even if it was on a permanent circuit that is about as far from a normal FE track as it's possible to get, where the drivers take an extremely liberal approach to track limits.

"It was funny to see all the cars out there line astern and tussling for positions," says Hartley. "It was more of a procedural exercise but yeah, I'm really excited to get to the first race, I can't wait.

"Also, running wheel-to-wheel with cars - that was interesting for me to see what people are doing in terms of energy management. To make an overtake you can overconsume for one or two laps, but you've got to get it back later on.

"So I was playing around, I'm sure everybody was, but it was probably more useful for me and Nico, who haven't done a race, than maybe some of the more experienced guys."

Like Hartley, Formula E has been on quite a journey in the past few years - indeed, with the ever-changing nature of its calendar, it's also used to setting up in a new location and quickly having to be at home.

But the manufacturer-sodden, high-profile championship is a very desirable, and often lucrative, place for professional drivers. It's why Buemi has worked hard to make a WEC-FE programme work. Unlike Hartley, who is clear "WEC takes priority", it is still undecided if Buemi will miss the 2020 Sebring round for the clashing FE event at Sanya.

Lotterer and Envision Virgin Racing's Sam Bird have opted to make FE their priority this season after also making twin-programmes with the WEC work in the past. But even if it means regularly jumping from one car to another, after all the change Hartley has been through lately he's clear on how he wants his new-home ambitions to go.

"The aim is to have two successful campaigns and continue this on," he explains. "There's a few other drivers doing it, and the FE paddock is a really exciting place to be.

"Over the course of the Valencia test I did the press conference and a bit of a round table, and the interest from media was a big surprise to me. I've heard good things about TV viewership, I've been watching the races the last year and I've enjoyed watching the races, but it's clear there's a lot of interest and excitement around this championship.

"And that's from viewers, journalists and drivers - because when you speak to the drivers, everyone enjoys the racing. It's tough, it's wheel-to-wheel, some of the best drivers in the world, some of the best teams in the world.

"So it is a great place to be outside of Formula 1. Everyone asks 'Are you OK [racing] outside of Formula 1?', but I think it's one of the best places you can be for competitive racing."