Born and raised in New York City, Max Esterson started his racing career online using iRacing at around age 11 and moved up the ranks, eventually making his way into the Top 35 of iRacers around the world, and into the Top 4 in the U.S. rankings. Based in the U.K. since 2021, Max has been focused on forging through the single-seater racing ladder in Europe and progressing down the path to Formula One.  

 

For 2024, Max is continuing his forward progress and committed to a full season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Swiss-based Jenzer Motorsport. With races held in conjunction with the FIA Formula One Championship, Max will compete in 20 races around the world including Melbourne, Bahrain and across Europe including at the world famous Monaco Grand Prix, and will once again take part in the end-of-year marquee event – the FIA Formula 3 World Cup in Macau. 

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Max’s path has so far been a relatively short one. 2019 was Max’s first taste of karting which consisted of five race meetings with McAleer Racing in upstate New York at Oakland Valley Race Park in the X30 Senior class. Along with karting, Max got his first taste of cars at the Bertil Roos Racing School at Palm Beach Int’l Raceway at the end of 2019. For 2020, Max was scheduled to drive a full season for Team Pelfrey's F1600 program. Although the season ended up being cut in half due to COVID, he ended the year with 1 win, multiple podiums, and 3 pole positions in 5 events. In October, Max travelled across the pond to compete in the renowned Formula Ford Festival with Low Dempsey Racing (fka Cliff Dempsey Racing), where he qualified 2nd in his Heat and finished 6th in the Grand Final – his first weekend driving in the rain.

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For 2021 Max remined in FF1600 and continued his partnership with Low Dempsey Racing, moving to the U.K. and competing in the full season of the BRSCC Avon Tyres National Formula Ford Championship where he won races and poles, led much of the season and ultimately finished 3rd in the Championship. 2021 was a great learning year with 9 wins overall and 23 podiums from 34 total races. In October, Max was chosen as a winner of the prestigious Team USA Scholarship. In the Team USA liveried car (still run by Low Dempsey Racing) he followed up his strong season with a hard-fought second-place finish at the 50th Anniversary Formula Ford Festival after starting in thirteenth. A week later, he completed a clean sweep of the Walter Hayes Trophy event at Silverstone, taking pole, a heat win, a semi-final win, and led all 15 laps of the Grand Final, making him the fourth American driver to win the event – the first since 2012.​

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In 2022 and 2023, Max moved up to the premier open-wheel series in Britain, the GB3 Championship (fka British Formula 3), first with Douglas Motorsport and then for his second season with Fortec Motorsport. Max proved himself as a frontrunner with poles, fastest laps, podiums and wins.  At the end of the 2022 season, Max went back to the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy and managed to dominate both events, becoming the first American to win the main event at the Formula Ford Festival and the only American driver to win both the Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy. In 2023, Max made his debut in FIA F3 when he was asked to fill in for Rodin Carlin Racing in two races at the British Grand Prix and the Hungarian Grand Prix, followed by running the 2023 FIA Formula 3 World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix with Jenzer Motorsport.  In 2023 Max was honored to be elected as a member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s Rising Stars programme.