Esmée Hawkey is a versatile British driver who has had her best results in the Porsche Carrera Cup.
Her motorsport career started early. After several seasons of karting she raced in Ginetta Juniors in 2014, after becoming a finalist in the Ginetta Junior Scholarship at the end of 2013. This led to a development deal with AmDTuning. As well as karting, she raced in the last three Ginetta Junior rounds of 2014, at Rockingham, Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Her best results were two 15th places, at Rockingham and Brands Hatch. She was 22nd overall.
She also tested an AmDTuning BTCC car, driving the team’s Honda Civic during a tyre test at Snetterton.
In 2015, she drove for JHR Developments in Ginetta Juniors. Her best overall finishes were two fourteenth places, at Oulton Park, but she did well among the Rookie drivers. She was 25th in the championship.
2016 was the year she graduated to senior competition in the form of the GT Cup, racing a Porsche Cayman for the GT Marques team. She was runner-up in the GTA class and had a best overall finish of eighth at Donington.
In 2017, she was nominated for the Carrera Cup GB Junior Scholarship and continued to race in the GT Cup.
She did her first full season of the Carrera Cup in 2018, still with GT Marques, earning two podium finishes in the Pro-Am class at Monza and Brands Hatch.
In 2019, the Carrera Cup was combined with a season in the all-female W Series, where she was fifteenth in the championship. She did better in the Carrera Cup, with three wins in the Pro-Am class at Thruxton and Oulton Park and a third on the class leaderboard.
Her final position in the W Series standings was fifteenth and she was let go by the championship, which was cancelled in 2020 anyway. This proved to be a very minor setback in her career, as she signed with Team Parker Racing for the Carrera Cup and was instantly the Pro-Am class driver to beat. She won the Pro-Am class in her first four races and at the time of writing, has won nine out of twelve Pro-Am battles. Her best overall finishes have been two third places, at Donington and Brands Hatch. These were her first series podiums.
At the end of the 2019 season she was named as a test driver for the MB Motorsport BTCC team. She had her first test in the Honda Civic at Snetterton in July 2020.
(Image copyright Esmee Hawkey)