🇬🇧 Ken Wharton

Ken Wharton was an established professional racing driver who competed in Formula 1 between 1952 and 1955, fielded primarily by Cooper. He raced in a field that mixed amateur, semi-professional and professional drivers, many of whom would go on to dominate the sport in later years.[1]

Wharton made his World Championship debut at the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix, run to Formula 2 regulations, where he qualified 13th and finished fourth; that result remained among his best performances in the series. Across 16 starts he scored three championship points. He was most often outpaced by Mike Hawthorn, who would become the 1958 Formula 1 world champion and drove for the same Cooper team, though he split races with Jean Behra, an established professional with 52 Formula 1 starts, and occasionally finished ahead of established drivers such as Harry Schell and Bob Gerard.[2]