Biography

At the age of twelve he switched to single-seaters, taking on seasoned veterans in Formula First. Finishing seventh in his debut season it was clear that the kid had class.

The following year, still only 13, he won the New Zealand Formula Ford Festival which in turn earned him a full season in the following year's Formula Ford championship. Using his brother's old car, Brendon won two of the four races he started finishing the season second overall.

For 2005, Brendon switched to Formula Toyota New Zealand, the youngster making the headlines by winning the first ever race at the country's brand new Timaru circuit in early January.

Realising that the clearly talented youngster needed to be racing outside New Zealand, his management team decided to bring him to Europe for 2006 having got him on to the Red Bull Junior Team.

Brendon contested the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with Motorsport Arena, finishing the season 10th and 14th respectively.

He remained in Formula Renault in 2007 but switched from the Northern European Cup to the Italian championship. He also switched teams, moving to the Epsilon Red Bull Team. Four wins saw the youngster win the Eurocup while in the Italian series he could 'only' manage third overall.

In what was already a busy season, Brendon also found the time to take part in the prestigious Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder - in which he finished fourth - and a couple of rookie outings for A1 Team New Zealand.

For 2008 Brendon made the obvious move up to F3 contesting the British championship and Euroseries Carlin Motorsport. In the British series the youngster won five races on his way to taking third in the championship while the fact that he was ineligible to score points in the Euroseries didn't prevent him winning two races.

Once again, Brendon found time to contest the Masters of Formula 3, in which he finished fifth, while in Macau he finished a strong third, thereby ticking yet another box.

As if this wasn't enough, in February his Red Bull connection saw Brendon drive the Red Bull F1 car at a promotional event in Riyadh and subsequently shaking down the Toro Rosso 2008 contender. Later that year, following Mark Webber's charity bike ride accident, the young Kiwi was hurriedly drafted in to assist regular test driver Sebastien Buemi.

In 2009, in addition to contesting the Euroseries with Carlin, Brendon also took part in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Tech 1 Racing. However, on the whole it was a disappointing season with one win and failure to make it into the top ten in the final standings of either series. Sadly, his return to Macau was also unsuccessful, Brendon one of ten drivers eliminated in a first lap accident.

Named as official test driver for the Red Bull and Toro Rosso teams, Brendon was mysteriously dropped mid-season in favour of Jaime Alguersuari who subsequently inherited the number two seat with the Faenza team following the firing of Sebastien Bourdais.

At season end, Brendon was called up by Toro Rosso to drive its car in the 'rookie test' at Jerez. Of the two rookie drivers on duty for the Faenza team - the other was 2008 Italian F3 champion Mirko Bortolotti - Brendon was the quicker.

On 26 January 2010, Brendon was named as one of two official test and reserve drivers for Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the Kiwi sharing the role with Daniel Ricciardo. The two were also confirmed as teammates at Tech 1 with whom they would contest the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.

For the first six races, Brendon and Ricciardo shared test and reserve driver duties for Red Bull and Toro Rosso, alternating race by race, however, at that stage the kiwi was suddenly dropped from the Red Bull Driver Programme - losing his F1 and Formula Renault drives - as there was disappointment that he hadn't won a race in a season and a half.

While his seat in Formula Renault was taken by British F3 Championship winner Jean-Eric Vergne, Brendon found a seat with Scuderia Coloni in the final rounds of the GP2 Series. At season end he took part in the two-day GP2 test in Abu Dhabi with Racing Engineering.