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Mike Hawthorn 1958 Argentine GP.jpg
Mike Hawthorn
Born (1929-Template:MONTHNUMBER-10)10 1929
Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, UK
Died Template:Death date and age
Near Onslow Village, Guildford, Surrey, England, UK
Formula One career
Nationality 25px UK British
Years 1952 - 1958

John Michael Hawthorn (10 April 1929 – 22 January 1959) was a racing driver, born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, and educated at Ardingly College, West Sussex.

Racing career[]

Mike Hawthorn made his competition debut driving his 1934 Riley Ulster Imp, KV 9475, winning the 1,100 c.c. sports car class at the Brighton Speed Trials on 2 September 1950.[1] In 1951, driving a 1½-litre T.T. Riley, he entered the Motor Sport Brooklands Memorial Trophy, a season-long contest run at Goodwood, winning it by one point.[2] He also won the Ulster Trophy Handicap at Dundrod and the Leinster Trophy at Wicklow that year.[3]

Hawthorn made his Formula One debut at the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix, finishing in fourth place. He won his first Grand Prix, at the ninth attempt, at the 1953 French Grand Prix at Reims.

In 1955, Hawthorn won the 24 hours of Le Mans race after an inspired drive in which he set a lap record of 122 mph during a three hour duel with Fangio in the early stages. The race was marred by the crash which killed 83 spectators and fellow racer Pierre Levegh, when Hawthorn, relaxing at the end of his stint, may have braked too hard in order to slow down before entering his pit, causing Macklin's Healey to swerve into the path of Levegh's Mercedes. After colliding with the Healey, the Mercedes struck a tunnel parapet and disintegrated, the engine and other parts flying into the crowd. The French press carried photographs of Hawthorn and Bueb celebrating their win with the customary champagne but treated them with scorn.[4]

At the Dunrod TT, sharing the D Type with Dennis Titterington, saw Hawthorn pass Fangio twice, only to lose in the final stages when, running on full tanks, he was passed by Moss; the D Type's engine failed on the last lap. In 1957, Hawthorn joined the Ferrari factory team, and soon became friends with Peter Collins, a fellow Englishman and Ferrari team driver. During the 1958 racing season, the two Englishmen became engaged in a rivalry with Luigi Musso, another Ferrari driver, that spurred all three into fierce competition for prize money. Hawthorn was the winner of the 1958 French Grand Prix at Reims, in which Musso was killed while in second place.

Hawthorn won the 1958 Formula One Championship despite achieving only one win, against four by Moss. Leading easily in the Monaco GP at half distance, his 246 engine blew, while at Monza he was a minute ahead of Tony Brooks when his clutch forced him to slow to second place. Hawthorn benefited greatly from the gentlemanliness of Moss, as demonstrated at the Portuguese Grand Prix at Porto. Hawthorn was disqualified for bump starting his stalled car downhill in the opposite direction, on the way to a second place finish. Moss interceded on Hawthorn's behalf and the decision was ultimately reversed. After a pit stop midway through that race, Hawthorn accelerated back through the field to gain an extra point for fastest lap. Moss had failed to respond, possibly doubting Hawthorn could lap so fast with damaged drum brakes. This extra world championship point plus the second place points contributed to Hawthorn winning the championship with a season total just one more than that of Moss. In the final race at Morocco, Hawthorn drove a conservative tactical race aiming to stay ahead of Moss's Vanwall teammates. Brooks' car broke while narrowly leading Hawthorn, and Stuart Lewis-Evans in the third Vanwall crashed after a desperate attempt to move through the field and challenge Hawthorn running third; Evans later died of burns. In the last laps, second-placed Phil Hill slowed and waved Hawthorn through to gain enough points to take the Championship.

After winning the title, Hawthorn immediately announced his retirement from Formula One, having been badly affected by the death of his close friend and Ferrari team mate Peter Collins in that year's German Grand Prix.

Rivalry with Luigi Musso[]

Many years after the death of Mike Hawthorn, Fiamma Breschi, Luigi Musso's girlfriend at the time of his death, revealed the nature of Musso's rivalry with Hawthorn and Collins in a television documentary, The Secret Life of Enzo Ferrari. Breschi recalled that the antagonism between Musso and the two English drivers encouraged all three to take more risks:

"The Englishmen (Hawthorn and Collins) had an agreement," she says. "Whichever of them won, they would share the winnings equally. It was the two of them against Luigi, who was not part of the agreement. Strength comes in numbers, and they were united against him. This antagonism was actually favourable rather than damaging to Ferrari. The faster the drivers went, the more likely it was that a Ferrari would win." Breschi related that Musso was in debt at the time of his death, and the money for winning the 1958 French Grand Prix (traditionally the largest monetary prize of the season), was all-important to him.

After visiting the mortally-wounded Musso in hospital, Breschi returned to her hotel, where she and the rest of the Ferrari team were informed by the team manager that afternoon that Musso had died. By the end of that year Collins and Hawthorn were also dead, and Breschi could not suppress a feeling of release. "I had hated them both," she said, "first because I was aware of certain facts that were not right, and also because when I came out of the hospital and went back to the hotel, I found them in the square outside the hotel, laughing and playing a game of football with an empty beer can. So when they died, too, it was liberating for me. Otherwise I would have had unpleasant feelings towards them forever. This way I could find a sense of peace."[5]

Death[]

File:MHV Jaguar 2.4 1955 01.jpg

Jaguar Mk 1

On 22 January 1959, only months into his retirement, Hawthorn died in a car accident on the A3 Guildford bypass while driving his highly tuned Jaguar 3.4-litre sedan (now known as the 3.4 Mk 1). The cause of the accident is unknown, suggestions including driver error, mechanical failure, or a blackout. There is evidence that Hawthorn had recently suffered blackouts, perhaps because of kidney failure.[6] By 1955, Hawthorn had already lost one kidney to infection, and had begun suffering problems with the other; he was expected at the time to live only three more years.[4]

Eponymy[]

In Farnham, Surrey, the town where he lived up to the time of his death, there is a street named Mike Hawthorn Drive (off Dogflud Way). It was also in this town that Hawthorn ran The Tourist Trophy Garage which sold Jaguars, Rileys, Fiats, and Ferraris. There is also a corner named after him at the Croft racing circuit at Croft on Tees in North Yorkshire.

Complete World Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 WDC Pts.[7]
1952 LD Hawthorn Cooper T20 Bristol I6 SUI
500
BEL
4
GBR
3
GER
NED
4
ITA
Ret
5th 10
AHM Bryde Cooper T20 Bristol I6 FRA
Ret
1953 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500 Ferrari I4 ARG
4
500
NED
4
BEL
6
FRA
1
GBR
5
GER
3
SUI
3
ITA
4
4th 19 (27)
1954 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 625 Ferrari I4 ARG
DSQ
500
BEL
4*
GBR
2
GER
2*
SUI
Ret
ITA
2
3rd 24 Page Template:Fraction/styles.css has no content.914
Ferrari 553 Ferrari I4 FRA
Ret
ESP
1
1955 Vandervell Products Ltd. Vanwall Vanwall I4 ARG
MON
Ret
500
BEL
Ret
NC 0
Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 555 Ferrari I4 NED
7
ITA
10
Ferrari 625 Ferrari I4 GBR
6*
1956 Owen Racing Organisation Maserati 250F Maserati I6 ARG
3
BEL
DNS
12th 4
BRM P25 BRM I4 MON
DNS
500
GBR
Ret
GER
ITA
Vandervell Products Ltd. Vanwall Vanwall I4 FRA
10*
1957 Scuderia Ferrari Lancia-Ferrari D50A Lancia V8 ARG
Ret
MON
Ret
500
4th 13
Ferrari 801 Lancia V8 FRA
4
GBR
3
GER
2
PES
ITA
6
1958 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari Dino 246 Ferrari V6 ARG
3
MON
Ret
NED
5
500
BEL
2
FRA
1
GBR
2
GER
Ret
POR
2
ITA
2
MOR
2
1st 42 (49)

* Indicates Shared Drive

Hawthorn Memorial Trophy[]

The Hawthorn Memorial Trophy has been awarded to the most successful British or Commonwealth F1 driver every year since 1959.[8]

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References[]

  1. Motor Sport, October 1950, Page 493; Motor Sport, August 1951, Page 379.
  2. Motor Sport, September 1951, Page 432.
  3. Motor Sport, January 1952, Page 11.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Deadliest Crash:the Le Mans 1955 Disaster BBC Four documentary, broadcast 16-May-2010
  5. Williams, Richard, Richard Williams Talks to Fiamma Breschi, the Woman Behind Enzo Ferrari, The Guardian, 22 January 2004
  6. http://www.mike-hawthorn.org.uk
  7. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named droppedpoints
  8. "Button receives Hawthorn Trophy". racecar.com. 8 July 2007. http://www.racecar.com/story.asp?NewsID=17848. Retrieved 2007-07-16. 

External links[]

Preceded by:
Lance Macklin
BRDC International Trophy winner
1953
Succeeded by:
José Froilán González
Preceded by:
José Froilán González
Maurice Trintignant
Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
1955 with:
Ivor Bueb
Succeeded by:
Ron Flockhart
Ninian Sanderson
Preceded by:
Juan Manuel Fangio
Formula One World Champion
1958
Succeeded by:
Jack Brabham
Records
Preceded by:
Alberto Ascari
34 years, 16 days
(1952 season)
Youngest Formula One
World Drivers' Champion

29 years, 192 days
(1958 season)
Succeeded by:
Jim Clark
27 years, 188 days
(1963 season)
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