Esmee Hawkey may have missed out on the Porsche GB 2018/19 Junior shootout, but the experience it provided fueled the fire for her joining the Porsche Carrera Cup GB this season.

After taking part in the GT Cup for the last two seasons driving a Porsche Cayman GT4, the 20-year-old is looking forward to the new challenge and a return to the TOCA package.

Speaking about the Junior shootout at the end of the 2017 season, Hawkey revealed how the opportunity had raised her interest in the series, “I think it gave me a real insight into the championship and getting into the car and just everything about it, the media side of things and the training and driving the car.”

For 2018, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB switches to the second generation Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup car, something that Hawkey got chance to sample during the shootout process.

“Getting into the Generation 2 car it was definitely a great feeling, and I definitely felt like I couldn’t be missing out on this year, that’s pretty much what I wanted to do this season.

Looking ahead to the year Hawkey has already identified her main target, beating the other six drivers to the Rookie title within the championship.

“I’m really looking forward to it, obviously it’s a new car so I’ve got a lot to learn but I’m definitely going to be looking at the rookie prize and that’s kind of my main goal for this year.

“We’re going to see how how well we can do, just aiming to get better each round so I will see how it goes.”

Aside from the circuits that Hawkey already knows from her time in GT Cup and the Ginetta Junior series prior to that, the series heads to Italy and the legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

“I’m really excited for Monza, obviously everyone’s kind of thrown in he deep end, you can’t really test there because it’s quite far away, but yeah I think I’ll be really good to get everyone out there and show their competitive side.

“I think it will be time to go on the simulator and try out a bit of testing before we go,” adds Hawkey.