Hawthorn was born in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, to Leslie and Winifred Hawthorn, and educated at Ardingly College, West Sussex, followed by Chelsea Technical College and an apprenticeship with a commercial vehicle manufacturer. His father owned the Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham, franchised to supply and service several high-performance brands including Jaguar and Ferrari. His father raced motorcycles and supported his son's career; following his father's death in a road accident in 1954, Hawthorn inherited the business.
Hawthorn made his competition debut on 2 September 1950 in his 1934 Riley Ulster Imp, winning the 1,100 cc sports car class at the Brighton Speed Trials. In 1951, driving a 1½-litre T.T. Riley, he won the Motor Sport Brooklands Memorial Trophy at Goodwood by one point, and also won the Ulster Trophy Handicap at Dundrod and the Leinster Trophy at Wicklow.
By 1952, Hawthorn had switched to single-seaters and won his first race in a Formula Two Cooper-Bristol T20 at Goodwood. This brought him to the attention of Enzo Ferrari, who offered him a works drive. He made his Formula One debut at the 1952 Grote Prijs van Belgie on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, finishing fourth. By season's end he had added a third place at the RAC British Grand Prix.
In 1953 at Scuderia Ferrari, Hawthorn won the French Grand Prix at Reims — at his ninth attempt — outmanoeuvring Juan Manuel Fangio in a race where the top four drivers finished within five seconds of each other after 60 laps. He ended the season fourth overall. He also won the BRDC International Trophy and the Ulster Trophy, and took victory at the 24 Heures de Spa Francorchamps alongside Ferrari teammate Giuseppe Farina.
During the Gran Premio di Siracusa, Hawthorn suffered serious burns in a crash. He recovered to win the season finale in Spain and placed third in the Drivers' Championship. He briefly left Ferrari for Tony Vandervell's Vanwall team — needing to spend more time at the family garage — but returned to Ferrari after two races.
In January 1955, Hawthorn joined the Jaguar racing team, replacing Stirling Moss who had left for Mercedes. He won the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, setting a lap record of 4 minutes and 6.6 seconds during a three-hour duel with Fangio in the early stages.
The race was overshadowed by a crash that killed 83 spectators and Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh. Hawthorn, noticing an order to enter the pits to refuel, braked suddenly after overtaking Lance Macklin's Healey, causing Macklin to swerve into the path of Levegh's Mercedes. The collision sent Levegh's car into the spectator enclosures, scattering debris — bonnet, engine, and front axle — through the crowd. Eight hours later, while the Jaguar team led by 1.5 laps, Mercedes withdrew as a mark of respect; Jaguar declined to join them and accepted the win. The official inquiry ruled Hawthorn not responsible, attributing the disaster to inadequate track safety standards. The death toll led to bans on motorsports in France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and other nations. In Switzerland the ban remained with exceptions until June 2022.
At the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, sharing a Jaguar D-Type with Desmond Titterington, Hawthorn passed Fangio twice and set the lap record, but lost in the final stages when the D-Type's engine failed on the last lap while running on full tanks.
A move to BRM for 1956 was largely unsuccessful; Hawthorn's only podium came in Argentina, where the non-appearance of his BRM allowed him to guest-drive a Maserati 250F. When the new 2.5 BRM appeared, usually only in British races, it was fast but unreliable. Deeply unhappy with the team's management, Hawthorn walked out. At Le Mans that year he was favoured to win again but lost ten laps in the pits early in the race. Racing the D-Type in Italy, he suffered very serious burns in a second accident. He rejoined Ferrari for 1957, convinced the Lancia Ferrari D50-derived car could give him the championship. He soon became friends with Peter Collins, a fellow Englishman and Ferrari teammate. During 1957 and 1958, Hawthorn, Collins, and Luigi Musso engaged in a fierce rivalry for prize money.
Hawthorn won the 1958 Formula One Championship with one victory, against four by Moss. He won the 1958 French Grand Prix at Reims, in which Musso was fatally injured while in second place. At Monaco, leading easily at half distance, his engine blew. At Monza he was a minute ahead of Tony Brooks before clutch trouble dropped him to second.
At the Portuguese Grand Prix at Porto, Hawthorn was disqualified for bump-starting his stalled car downhill in the wrong direction on the way to a second-place finish. Moss interceded on his behalf and the decision was reversed. After a pit stop, Hawthorn accelerated back through the field to gain an extra point for fastest lap — a point that ultimately decided the championship.
In the final race, the Moroccan Grand Prix, Hawthorn drove conservatively to stay ahead of Moss's Vanwall teammates. Tony Brooks's car failed while narrowly leading Hawthorn; Stuart Lewis-Evans crashed in the third Vanwall after a desperate attempt to challenge Hawthorn and later died of burns. Second-placed Phil Hill slowed and waved Hawthorn through to give him enough points to clinch the title — the first Formula One World Championship won by a British driver. Hawthorn's one win in a title-winning season ties him with Keke Rosberg (also one win in 1982) for the fewest Grands Prix victories by an eventual champion.
Hawthorn immediately announced his retirement. He had been profoundly affected by the death of Peter Collins two months earlier during the German Grand Prix.
In a television documentary recorded after Hawthorn's death, Fiamma Breschi — Musso's girlfriend at the time — recalled that Hawthorn and Collins had an agreement to share winnings equally and that their united front against Musso encouraged all three to take more risks. Musso was in debt at the time of his death, and the prize money for the French Grand Prix was especially important to him. After visiting the mortally injured Musso in hospital, Breschi returned to her hotel to find Hawthorn and Collins laughing and playing football with an empty beer can.
Hawthorn never married but fathered a son, Arnaud Michael Delaunay, born 1954, with Jacqueline Delaunay, whom he met in Reims after his 1953 French Grand Prix win. He was engaged at the time of his death to fashion model Jean Howarth, who later married racing driver Innes Ireland in 1993. Hawthorn was noted for wearing a bow tie when racing; to the French he became known as "Le Papillon" (The Butterfly).
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.
On 22 January 1959, three months after his retirement, Hawthorn died in a road accident on the A3 Guildford bypass near Onslow Village. He was driving his modified 1958 Jaguar 3.4-litre saloon (registration VDU 881) when, travelling at speed, he overtook a Mercedes-Benz 300SL driven by motor racing team manager Rob Walker. On entering a right-hand bend, Hawthorn clipped a Keep Left bollard, causing him to lose control. The Jaguar glanced an oncoming Bedford lorry before careering sideways into a roadside tree, uprooting it. Hawthorn suffered fatal head injuries and was propelled onto the rear seat.
Speculation arose that Hawthorn and Walker had been racing; Walker refused at the coroner's inquest to estimate his own speed. In a 1988 interview, Walker admitted he had indeed been racing Hawthorn but had been advised by a police officer not to say so lest he incriminate himself. Possible causes include driver error, a blackout from kidney failure, or mechanical failure, though examination of the wreck revealed no obvious fault. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of accidental death. Hawthorn was buried in West Street Cemetery in Farnham.
The Hawthorn Memorial Trophy was established by the RAC in 1959, awarded annually to the most successful British or Commonwealth driver in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton has won the trophy eleven times.
In Farnham, a street is named Mike Hawthorn Drive and the Tourist Trophy Garage still exists under his name. There is a hill and corner named after him at Brands Hatch and a corner at Croft racing circuit. A statue at Goodwood Circuit commemorates Hawthorn as the UK's first Formula One World Champion. In Towcester on the Shires estate, three miles from Silverstone, Hawthorn Drive is named after him.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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