Brendon Hartley will retain his Porsche fa🌌ctory driver status for the 2019 season following his🅰 Formula 1 exit.

Hartley became a Porsche factory driver in 2014 upon joining its LMP1 line-up, and remained on the books of the German marque des🧸pite his move into F1 with Toro Rosso-Honda at th🔯e end of last year.

Hartley was dropped from Tor♋o Rosso’s F1 line-up for 2019 after scoring only four points this year, finishing second-from-bottom in the🐻 drivers’ standings.

The 💟New Zealander said earlier this week he was considering his options for next year, and was confirmed on Saturday night to be continuing as a Porsche factory drivﷺer through 2019.

Hartley is part of a largely-unchanged factory driver line-up for P🧸orsche, as announced as its Night of Champions event in Stuttgart.

However, Hartley was not name🅷d to any of the team’s sports car line-ups for 2019 that included a four-car factory GT effort for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hartley has been linked to racing for Porsche in For🐻mula E upon its entry to the championship in late 2019, and gained experience testing a car from the all-electric series in the weeks leading up to hisꦅ shock F1 entry.

Porsche motorsport chief Fritz Enzinger confirmed at the Night of Champions that its first Formula E driver was “already decided” and would be “announced shortly” ahead of the start of testing this sprin🍷g.

The only change to the factory driver squad at Weissach for next year is the addition of Jaxon Evans, 22, who won the Porsche Car𒉰rera Cup Austra﷽lia in 2018.