Maxwell Esterson (born 9 October 2002) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

racing driver and sim-racer who most recently competed in the

GB3 Championship The GB3 Championship is a single seater motorsport series based in the United Kingdom. The championship is the UK's premier single-seater category, and is aimed at young racing drivers moving up from FIA Formula 4 championships or Karting. H ...

with

Fortec Motorsports Fortec Motorsport Ltd. is a motor-racing team that races in the GB3 Championship. The team was bought in 1995 by current owner Richard Dutton. Past drivers for the team include Juan Pablo Montoya, Gianmaria Bruni, Danny Watts, Jamie Green, Jame ...

. He also has competed in the

FIA Formula 3 Championship The FIA Formula 3 Championship is a third-tier international single-seater racing championship and organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship launched in 2019 as a feeder series for the FIA Formula 1 W ...

with Rodin Carlin. He is also a former

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

athlete.

Career

Sim racing

Esterson started his sim racing career on

iRacing ''iRacing'' is a subscription-based online racing simulation video game developed and published by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. All in-game sessions are hosted on the publisher's servers. The game simulates real world cars, tr ...

at the age of 11. He then went on to become one of the top sim-racers in the world, including finishing in 7th place in the 2019 VRS Pro GT Championship. This string of results quickly showed as he was ranked within the top 50 road course drivers on the i

Racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

program. In 2020 he became champion of the Formula Race Promotions iRacing Challenge. He followed this by winning the 2021 Road to Indy TireRack.com eSeries.

Karting

Esterson started karting when he was almost 16. In 2019 he contested his first full season in karting at Oakway Valley Race Park, competing with McAleer Racing.

Formula Ford

2020

Esterson made his single-seater racing debut in 2020, competing in the

F1600 Championship Series The F1600 Championship Series was created by the SCCA in 2011. The series is organized by Formula Race Promotions, the same organization which organizes the F2000 Championship Series, and sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing. It is a series whose champio ...

with Team Pelfrey. He took one victory and finished the season in fifth. He also contested a single race in the F2000 Championship Series at

Pittsburgh International Race Complex Pittsburgh International Race Complex (commonly known as Pitt Race) is an auto racing road course located in Wampum, Pennsylvania. Pitt Race hosts amateur and professional automobile, motorcycle, and karting events. The track Pittsburgh Inte ...

, which he won, setting at the time the track-record. At the end of the year Esterson made his debut at the Formula Ford Festival and the

Walter Hayes Trophy The Walter Hayes Trophy is a non-championship Formula Ford race. Sanctioned by the Historic Sports Car Club and created by James Beckett the race has grown into the most prestigious Formula Ford race worldwide. The race is held annually in Novembe ...

2021

In 2021 Esterson competed in the BRSCC Avon Tyres National Formula Ford Championship for Low Dempsey Racing where he scored two wins and finished third in the Championship. He then went on to finish second in the 50th Anniversary BRSCC Formula Ford Festival and won the 2021

as part of the Team USA Scholarship.

2022

He returned to the Formula Ford Festival and

with Ammonite Motorsport in 2022. At the Formula Ford Festival he took taken pole. Esterson was then awarded victory as the race was cancelled after a few laps due to torrential weather conditions. In the Walter Hayes Trophy Esterson initially finished first but he was then dropped to fifth after receiving a 4.5-second penalty for a collision with Tom Mills.

GB3 Championship

2022

In 2022 Esterson progressed to the

, partnering Tommy Smith and

Marcos Flack Marcos Flack (born 8th March 2006), is an Australian racing driver currently competing in the GB3 Championship with Douglas Motorsport, and the Italian F4 Championship with R-ace GP. He is the son of former Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Champ ...

at Douglas Motorsport. He started out by taking his first top ten finish in Race 3 at the season opener in Oulton Park, before scoring a pair of fourth places at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

. The third round of the season at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

would prove to be his most successful one, as Esterson achieved his maiden podium in the first race, before winning Race 2 from pole position, thus securing his first win in slicks-and-wings machinery. He finished the season in seventh.

2023

In 2023 he joined

in the

. The season started with a series of misfortune, with a multitude of mechanical failures and difficult conditions leading to disappointing finishes in regard to his pace. His qualifying was hampered by a red flag at

Spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

, followed by a technical failure in race two after a strong drive to fourth. He would again make a strong drive in the reverse grid race, setting the fastest lap of the race and making up twelve places in six laps, only to be taken out at Les Combes. An electrical failure at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

during qualifying meant that he started at the back of the grid for all three races. His woes were exacerbated in the second

round, where he had two engine failures during free practice, and an underpowered engine for qualifying, despite this, he was able to recover well across the weekend, recovering to 10th and 9th in the first and second races respectively, from 18th on the grid. At the last race in

, Esterson would score his only podium with a third place in race two. Esterson finished the season in 11th, four places lower than the previous year.

FIA Formula 3

At the end of 2022, Esterson took part in the post-season test of the

with

Van Amersfoort Racing Van Amersfoort Racing is an auto racing team based in the Netherlands. In 2022 the team competes in the Formula 2 Championship, the Formula 3 Championship, the Formula Regional European Championship, Euroformula Open Championship, Italian F4 Cha ...

2023

In 2023 he joined Rodin Carlin in the

ahead of the round at

, replacing Hunter Yeany for both that round and

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Esterson finished a highest finish of 18th place in Budapest. He returned to his GB3 duties following that, and was replaced in his seat by

Euroformula Open The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europ ...

racer

Francesco Simonazzi Francesco Simonazzi (born 8 March 2004) is an Italian racing driver who is currently racing in the Euroformula Open Championship with BVM Racing. He previously competed in the Italian F4 Championship with the same outfit. Career Lower form ...

for the final two rounds. He was classified 35th, albeit last in the standings. For the post-season tests, Esterson was fielded in by

Jenzer Motorsport Jenzer Motorsport is an auto racing team based in Switzerland. Founded in 1993 by Andreas Jenzer the team is currently competing in FIA Formula 3, Italian F4 and F4 Spanish and has had a number of drivers who would turn out to be successful in ...

. Esterson will also partake in the Macau Grand Prix with Jenzer.

Personal life

Esterson grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

going to the

Allen-Stevenson School Allen-Stevenson is a private boys school for kindergarten through 8th grade in New York City, New York. It opened in 1883 and moved to its present location at 132 East 78th Street in 1924. History The Allen School was founded in 1883 by Fran ...

and attended Regis High School, graduating in 2021.

Racing record

Career summary

*Season still in progress.

Complete GB3 Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Macau Grand Prix results

Complete FIA Formula 3 Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^* Season still in progress.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Esterson, Max Living people 2002 births Racing drivers from New York City Regis High School (New York City) alumni Formula Ford drivers Team Pelfrey drivers Fortec Motorsport drivers FIA Formula 3 Championship drivers Carlin racing drivers Jenzer Motorsport drivers