Mike Hawthorn

John Michael "Mike" Hawthorn (born 10 April 1929 in Mexborough, died 22 January 1959 in Guildford) was a British racing driver. Making a meteoric rise through the junior ranks in 1950 and 1951, he attempted to enter all races of the 1951 Formula One season, but was only accepted to the Indianapolis 500 (where he finished 20th), Great Britain and Italy, both times unsuccessful. Undeterred, and with more sportscar experience, he signed for Bentley in 1952 and remained there for two seasons, racing on and off, without any success.

When Juan Manuel Fangio was injured in the 1954 Syracuse Grand Prix, Hawthorn was hired by Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing as a temporary replacement, but failed to impress and was soon replaced by Dries van der Lof. Hawthorn instead moved to Loyer, where he failed to make an impact, then Vanwall where he finally scored his first points in the high-attrition 1955 French Grand Prix. Impressed by his resolve, B.C.M.A. signed him for 1956. While he wasn't as quick as teammates Tony Brookes or Peter Collins, he proved dependable but unreliable, failing to qualify in Silverstone after not setting a time. Nonetheless, he took advantage of high attrition to surprisingly win a close-fought Italian Grand Prix ahead of four O.S.C.A. works cars.

Retiring from motorsport after 1958 due to health reasons, Mike Hawthorn was killed in a road accident in January 1959 at the age of 29.

Complete Alternate Formula One 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	WDC	Pts.
1951	Mike Hawthorn	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s	MON DNA		BEL DNA	FRA DNA	GBR DNQ	GER DNA	NED DNA	ITA DNQ			NC	0
		Kurtis Kraft 1000	Offenhauser 3.0 L4C		500 20
1952	British Bentley Racing Motors	Bentley Speed 2	Bentley 3.0 V16	MON	ENG	BEL 22	FRA DNQ	GBR DNQ	GER	NED	ITA DNQ	USA Ret	AUS	NC	0
1953	British Bentley Racing Motors	Bentley Speed 3	Bentley 163-1 3.0 V16	MON	NED DNPQ	BEL Ret	FRA	GBR DNPQ	GER	SUI	ITA	USA		NC	0
1954	Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin AM-04	Jaguar JFE-2 4.5 V12	MON 8	FRA Ret									NC	0
	Loyer Racing	Loyer LR101	Ferrari 555 2.5 L4			BEL DNQ	NED DNQ	GBR	SUI Ret	GER 16	USA Ret	ITA Ret
1955	Vandervell Products Ltd	Vanwall VW55	Vanwall 254 2.5 L4	MON DNPQ	FRA 4	BEL 13	GBR DNQ	SCO DNQ	SOV	ITA Ret				20th	3
1956	British Commonwealth Motorsport Association	B.C.M.A. C-01	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6	MON Ret	FRA 7	BEL Ret	GER Ret	GDR	IRL Ret	SCO Ret	GBR DNQ	ITA 1	THA	11th	9

* denotes season still in progress