Caitlyn O'Hart

O'Hart in a pre-season photoshoot for her 2011 season with Caterham F1.

Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland

**Caitlyn Elizabeth O'Hart** (born 29th February 1988) is an Irish racing driver, currently racing in Formula One for Caterham. She was once a member of McLaren's Young Driver Programme from 2007 to 2011. O'Hart is represented by Olander Management.

## Early Life

Born to parents Rory and Amy O'Hart, Caitlyn has lived in Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland her entire life. Her mother Amy was well known in both the Irish and British karting scenes, and had been working her way up towards Formula One until 1964 when her fledgling career ran out of funding. Rory O'Hart was the head of the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin before he passed away in 1995.

## Racing Career

### Karting, Formula BMW, A1 Grand Prix, and Formula 3 Euro Series (1999-2007)

O'Hart began karting semi-regularly at 11 years old in 1999. After winning her first championship in karting with the number 24 she began to use the number when possible. Following many years karting she then moved onto the Formula BMW UK series in it's inaugural season at the age of 16. Initially competing in just the last five rounds, O'Hart scored a few respectable finishes during her time in the car. The following season O'Hart would sign with brand new Irish outfit Filcell Motorsport and would go on to win the championship in a season that went all the way to the last race. Her championship victory would bring her to the Formula BMW World Final, where she finished fifth and took the fastest lap.

2006 saw O'Hart enter the Formula 3 Euro Series with HBR Motorsport to decent success including a podium finish at the 2006 Masters of Formula 3 race at Zandvoort. Her next venture in open-wheel would be the A1 Grand Prix Series with A1 Team Ireland. O'Hart told the press that she took great pride in being able to represent Ireland. The season would see O'Hart bring A1 Team Ireland to sixth in the championship with a few podiums and two wins. O'Hart's performance was enough to secure her an opportunity to return the following year as well as an opportunity with ASM Formule 3 in the Formula 3 Euro Series. Following up her 2006 successes, she would join into the McLaren Young Driver Programme in April of 2007.

O'Hart would tie her winningest season in the 2007 Formula 3 Euro Series after winning six times and appearing on the podium twelve times. Despite this, O'Hart would capture her championship by only six points with the final race being just the second time that season she would lead the championship. Due to this O'Hart would wind up missing the first two rounds of the 2007-2008 A1GP season, which would prove to be the deciding factor in the championship as Switzerland would end up winning the championship with Ireland finishing 2nd. O'Hart would similarly finish 2nd in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series with Qi-Meritus Mahara in preparation for her GP2 Series debut with Ricci Motor Sport International later that year.

### GP2 Series (2008-2009)

#### Ricci Motor Sport International (2008)

Following up upon her championship victory in the Formula 3 Euro Series, O'Hart moved onto the GP2 Series with Ricci Motor Sport International. Her debut season got off to a rocky start with her scoring points just twice in five rounds, however during this time the Monaco Grand Prix was cancelled due to a 5.5 magnitude earthquake that had occurred just two days before the grand prix weekend was due to take place.

After the midpoint of the season O'Hart's performances drastically turned around with a 3rd place finish in the feature race in Germany and a win in the Monza sprint race being of note. Despite her efforts, O'Hart would finish 11th in the championship overall, ultimately deciding to sign with ART Grand Prix the following year. Her contract with ART Grand Prix was brokered following her joining Olander Management in October of 2008.

#### ART Grand Prix (2009)

O'Hart's 2009 season would be a tale of two halves. Early domination looked certain for her when she won at Monaco twice and took pole, finished on the podium twice in Turkey, finished 2nd in Britain, and then finished 3rd in the sprint race and won the Germany feature race. O'Hart led her rivals by a margin of 38 points entering into the midpoint of the season. Her grasp on the lead would soon slip however, with a string of four retirements in a row spanning from the feature race in Hungary to the sprint race in Belgium. Two of her retirements were caused by driver error on her own part; one was part of an accident caused by other drivers as the rain began to pour for the fourth time in seven race weekend, and her final retirement in Belgium was caused by a tyre that would not separate from the car. She would go on to finish 8th in the Belgium feature race ending the drought. In that span of time her former lead had shrunk to fourth in the championship. Despite O'Hart's best efforts with a podium and win in Italy, she would ultimately finish 3rd in the Drivers' Championship.

### Formula One

#### Caterham F1 (2010-2012)

O'Hart would begin her Formula One career with Caterham, one of two new teams in Formula One that season alongside Mercedes. She would team with Galileo Galdi in a season that would have a good start for the Irish driver. In her second race, O'Hart would top practice in Bahrain and finish the race in 11th. Multiple races saw her in high positions midway through the race, including the Monaco Grand Prix where she would lead laps and score what would ultimately be her only points finish of the season. O'Hart would also get as high as second on lap 19 during the race in Germany that year. Following the summer break Caterham would fall behind most teams in car performance, with both drivers struggling for positions until round 10 in Singapore. O'Hart would be passed on the last lap while in 10th by Leon Becker, which would be her last race she would finish that season. In Japan and the season finale in Brazil, O'Hart would be involved in back-to-back lap 1 incidents forcing her to retire. Despite a disappointing second half to her season, O'Hart would sign with Caterham to return in 2011.

2011 would see a regression in pace for Caterham both from 2010 and from their early season form. The first round saw a double retirement for both herself and Galdi but for the first ever Chinese Grand Prix O'Hart would take 13th. In Canada, O'Hart would capture an 11th place finish which would end up being the best result for Caterham that year as the team would routinely struggle to gain positions. Monaco and the British Grand Prix's would not go well for the Irish driver, retiring and finishing in 20th respectively. She would go on to finish 14th in Austria.

During the break between Austria and through the German Grand Prix weekend, O'Hart found herself wrapped up into a media frenzy. A Twitter user reported that McLaren had removed O'Hart from their McLaren Driver Development Programme website, of which she had been a part of since the mid 2000s. Following more investigation it was eventually confirmed by O'Hart and Olander Management that they had parted ways with McLaren. While this had been newsworthy enough, it soon became worse as rumors circulated that the reason for leaving was due to O'Hart being very unhappy with McLaren rookie driver Chase McPherson getting the seat over her following the retirement of Georgina Hill. Despite press statements and reassurances that this was not the case from both sides, from May 26 to June 1 O'Hart would like several tweets in favor of her replacing McPherson as well as statistics. The tweets were unliked at 11:00 AM on June 1, however within thirty minutes of that O'Hart would link to a compilation video from YouTube showcasing her dominant 2007 Formula 3 Euro season, one that had included McPherson. In Germany following a 32 second stop, O'Hart would retire from the race while McPherson would finish a season low 15th whilst collecting the fastest lap.

The incident would be mostly forgotten, though rumors of O'Hart's departure from Caterham would begin soon after. In her next race for the Belgium Grand Prix she would start towards the back, as Caterham decided to put her on the wet tyres whilst everyone else used the intermediates in a qualifying session that once saw her as high as 2nd. Ultimately she would finish 14th in Belgium, then 16th at Monza. A rain heavy Singapore saw O'Hart capture the teams second best finish of 12th after an exhilarating drive. In Suzuka O'Hart would start near the back but overtake six cars on the first lap, her efforts would be in vain however as just a few laps later she would suffer engine problems. The last race of 2011 saw O'Hart beat outgoing teammate Galileo Galdi one final time, finishing 14th.

O'Hart's 2012 season began with an even greater regression in Caterham's pace from the previous years, with both herself and new teammate Leon Becker failing to pre-qualify for the first race of the season in the Australian Grand Prix. Once agains, rumors of O'Hart's departure from Caterham sprung up, then intensified following more failures by the team to pre-qualify a car at Austria and Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. The team continued to flounder and prior to the Belgian Grand Prix, the fifth grand prix weekend that Caterham had failed to qualify for and the fourth in a row, it was leaked that O'Hart had made comments behind closed doors stating her official intent to leave the team following the 2012 season. Caterham eventually fired Becker in place of Lukas McMahon, a Scottish driver, prior to the Italian Grand Prix. Caterham managed to finally get both cars through pre-qualifying. O'Hart bitterly stated that it was "impressive" before the race began. O'Hart qualified in 15th, while McMahon was far higher. Before the race could even officially begin, O'Hart's car had issues that forced the team to start her from the pitlane. Eventually her car got going, allowing her to start a lap down. Her race would end early after making contact with Josef Steinbacher after her car got loose out of Ascari. O'Hart and Steinbacher were not injured in the high-speed accident. Caterham would end up missing the Singapore Grand Prix. Following this O'Hart would confirm the rumors of her leaving Caterham after the conclusion of the 2012 season, citing their dramatic drop in pace as her reasoning.

O'Hart would qualify a season high 13th for the Japanese Grand Prix. After early contact with multiple drivers, spinning out, and driving with a damaged car, she would finish the race in 9th. The United States Grand Prix would see O'Hart set a new season high qualifying position in 11th in Road America, and despite a spin early on during the race O'Hart would work her way back up into a career best 7th place finish. Rumors and false reports around this time on where O'Hart would go following her 2012 season widely ranged in both terms of accuracy legitimacy, with her being reportedly "linked" to almost every team on the Formula One grid. Prior to the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix in a press conference when asked O'Hart jokingly confirmed that every single report was true when reporters tried to ask if she would be going to a specific team for the 2013 season. She also stated near the very end of the interview that she was going to be driving for almost every single team at once. This incident resulted in a number of articles quickly going live and being taken down about her going to almost every team. Some news organisations even posted about her going to two separate teams within minutes of each other.

## Personal Life

O'Hart is a dual citizen of both Ireland and Canada. Her grandfather served in the Canadian Armed Forces during World War 2 when her mother was born which legally granted her citizenship. She currently still lives in Dublin and is fluent in both English and Gaelic. Whilst growing up, O'Hart cited Santiago Reyes, Florian Delacroix, Stine Olander, and Conor Byrne as some of her favourite drivers and biggest inspirations along with her own mother. O'Hart has also stated that her dream since she was five years old was to race for Jordan Grand Prix and win a championship with the team after watching Ezequiel Zarco win a championship with them in 1993. She is currently the shortest driver on the Formula One grid, standing at just 5'1".

O'Hart's racing helmet is based upon the colours of the 1991 Jordan F1 car, green, blue, and white. The colours however have shifted in tone over the years, though for most seasons she tends to use darker metallic colours. Recently in 2012 she shifted to a much lighter palette whilst keeping the same colours.

O'Hart works with Olander Management, who have helped O'Hart with all contracts since, and have also helped her negotiate personal sponsor deals.