Mike Hawthorn

Mike Hawthorn was an English racing driver who took part in the F1R series from 1952-1958, racing for Connaught, Ferrari (in two separate seasons), Cooper, Gordini and OSCA.

Mike Hawthorn made his competition debut on 2 September 1950 in his 1934 Riley Ulster Imp, KV 9475, winning the 1,100 cc sports car class at the Brighton Speed Trials. That success quickly propelled him into the thinking of several F1R Team Principals, which led to his debut in F1R in 1952 for the fledgling Connaught outfit. A challenging season dogged by internal dispute and unreliability would have led most drivers to move onto pastures new for the following season but, typical of his determined character, Hawthorn remained at Connaught for 1953 where he managed to improve his best finish from 15th at the 1952 Italian GP to 11th at the 1953 Italian GP.

With Connaught clearly struggling to provide him with machinery to show his full potential, Hawthorn left to race for none other than Ferrari in 1954. And there he drew arguably the shortest straw of his entire F1R career, as the Ferrari 625 was an abysmal car that failed to record a single points finish all year (the only season that has ever happened to Ferrari, at the time of writing!) - once again he recorded only a best finish of 11th place. He moved to Cooper for 1955, though never quite found the balance he was looking for in the car (a best finish of 11th testament to that). A Top 10 finish continued to elude him in 1956 after an ill-fated tie in with Gordini saw him finish the season as comfortably their best driver, though with only 16th at his favourite Italian GP to show for it.

Ferrari, having recognised their mistake in letting a talented driver go, decided to give Hawthorn another chance in 1957 - and FINALLY, some 5 seasons since he started racing in F1R he had a car that he could use to show some of his actual pace! A 10th placed finish at the season opening Argentine GP finally broke his Top 10 issue, before 3 podiums in the next 4 races cemented his place as one of the top drivers in the F1R series - though it was asking a lot to compete with the established talents of Gerard and Collins, so 3rd place in the Drivers' Championship was a notable effort!

Sensing that this was as good as his F1R career was likely to get - and that Ferrari were likely to look elsewhere for 1958 anyway - the Englishman took the chance to join the OSCA outfit to lend his pace and experience to their return to the series. That helped propel team-mate Louis Chiron into scoring a podium for OSCA, which would have been incredibly unlikely without Hawthorn's support - though Hawthorn did manage to avoid another season without a Top 10 finish, after claiming 10th in the season opener in Argentina for the 2nd season in a row.

1958 was to be the final season for Hawthorn, whose 21st placed finish in Morocco was hardly the exit that such a driven competitor deserved. He retired to focus on running the Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham; a business he had inherited from his father a few years before. In his honour the 'Hawthorn Memorial Trophy' is awarded to the greatest British driver every year - and has been given every year since 1959.