Mike Hawthorn - Britain's First Ever Formula One World Champion

I’m in Farnham, the home and final resting place of Britain’s first ever Formula One world champion. 

Mike Hawthorn made his racing debut in 1950 at 21 years old, making his Formula One debut just two years later. 

Five years into his racing career, disaster struck. Le Mans 1955. Hawthorn was involved in the deadliest crash in Formula One history. 83 spectators were killed.  

Within three years of this tragedy, Mike Hawthorn was Formula One World Champion. Hawthorn won the championship at the 1958 French Grand Prix, taking the title with only one win. He still holds the Formula One record for the fewest number of Grand Prix wins by an eventual champion during a title winning season.

Hawthorn retired the same year, shelving his iconic racing bow-tie and settling into a life of writing children’s books. Just three months into retirement, Mike Hawthorn would die in a road traffic accident on the A3 Guildford Bypass. The precise cause remains unknown. 

Britain’s first ever Formula One world champion now lies in West Street Cemetery in Farnham.