Honda Formula 1 chiefs Toyoharu Tanabe and Masahasi Yamamoto have paid tribute💦 to Brendon Hartley after his exit from Toro Rosso was confirmed.

Toro Rosso anღnounced on Monday that Alexander Albon would be racing f𝐆or the team in 2019 alongside🔜 Daniil Kvyat, leaving Hartley wi🐼thout a drive.

Two-time WEC champion and 2017 Le Man🍷💞s winner Hartley made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso at last year’s United States Grand Prix, and raced throughout Honda’s first year as the Red Bull B-team’s engine supplier.

“On behalf of Honda, I would like to express my than💦ks to Brendon for all his hard wܫork this year,” Honda motorsports boss Yamamoto said.

“Brendon is🌄 always a friendly and charming person who immediately embraced Japanese culture and🍬 Honda’s way. It gave everyone at Honda so much power and confidence in what we were doing this year after several difficult seasons.

“I particularly remember when he qualified sixth at our home race in Suzuka. That meant a lot⛦ to Honda.

“We will miss him 🍌and wish him all the best for t൩he future.”

Honda F1 technical director Tanabe added: “Everyone ♉at Honda enjoyed working with Brendon throughout the year.

“He was ver🔯y strong on the engineering side, always giving very precise and useful feedback, based on his great experienced working with hybrid power units and as a double world champion and Le Mans winner in LMP1.

“That feedback accelera🔯ted our development in terms of setup work, which helped us progress over the course🍌 of the year.

“Thank you Brendon, and we wish y💖ou all the very best for the future𒁏.”

Hartley is yet to comment ꦿon his exit from Toro Rosso.