Vivien Keszthelyi

Vivien Keszthelyi  (born 7 December 2000 ) is a Hungarian female racing driver, who started her career at the age of 13. She is a member of the Audi Sport Racing Academy.

Keszthelyi started her professional career in 2014, in the Suzuki Swift Cup Europe series. She became the youngest and only female member of Audi Sport Racing Academy in 2015, also becoming the first Hungarian racing driver with factory connection. In 2016, she won her first races in an Audi TT in the Central European Zone Trophy, where she won both the sprint (short-distance) and the endurance (long-distance) categories.

In 2017, Keszthelyi became the youngest Hungarian point scorer in international series, when she competed in the Audi TT Cup. In 2018, she finished second in the Audi Sport R8 Cup, making her the youngest female racing driver in the international GT4 championships to finish the season in the top 3.

Career
Keszthelyi's father owned a racing team and she first raced in the touring car category. When she first raced in an international competition, she finished third in the absolute, second in the junior and first in the women's category during the racing weekend at the Hungaroring. She was able to enter the Swift Cup Europe series with a special license, which was essential for her to compete at the international level at her age. At the end of the season, she finished third in the junior and sixth at the adult absolute table. Seeing her accomplishments, the promoter of Suzuki Swift Cup Austria invited her as the only Hungarian driver to one of the races of the competition, where she finished 4th among adult men.

In her second season in the Suzuki Swift Cup Europe she finished third in the absolute, second in the junior and first in the women's category. Her potential attracted interest from the Audi Sport Racing Academy in 2016 and she was included as the only female among the three drivers chosen to be members of the academy. This made her the first Hungarian factory-trained racing driver at the age of 15.

Keszthelyi changed categories, replacing her car to a 350 horsepower Audi TT, with which she competed in the Central European Zone Trophy. In her first season she became the D-2000 Hungarian national champion of both the sprint (short-distance) and the endurance category (long-distance). In the 60th race of her career, she achieved her 60th podium finish and 25th victory.

In 2017, Keszthelyu continued in the Audi TT Cup where she experienced a more “physical” type of racing. She had several difficulties throughout the season (accidents, penalty after communication error), and only completed 7 out of 14 races. However, she collected 65 points and finished 13th in the championship, making her the youngest Hungarian racing driver to score points at the international level.

Keszthelyi completed the 2018 season in the GT4 Audi Sport Seyffarth R8 LMS Cup, the first time she competed with a rear-wheel drive race car, with the nearly 495 horsepower Audi R8 LMS GT4 with a V10, 5200 cc engine much stronger than her previous cars. In the championship the 17-year-old delivered consistent performances throughout the season. After the last race of the championship, she became the champion of the rookie category, while she also took second position at the absolute table, making her the youngest female racing driver in international GT4 championships to finish the season in the top three.

On 2 January 2019, it was confirmed that Keszthelyi would race in the FIA F3 Asian Championship Winter Series, making her the youngest and the first female Hungarian driver in the Formula 3 category. In her first Formula 3 season, she scored points in five races out of nine and finished 13th in the Asian Winter Series championship.

Keszthelyi qualified for W Series as one of two official test and reserve drivers. W Series is a free-to-enter motor racing series for women drivers, which started in May, 2019. For May 2019 Vivien Keszthelyi raced in W Series at Zolder in place Of Emma Kimilainen, and she finished on 10th place and scored point. Normally a reserve driver, was promoted to regular driver duties at Round 4.

Complete Audi Sport Seyffarth R8 LMS Cup results 2018
DNS=Did not start | Ret=Retired | DSQ=Disqualified | C=Race cancelled

Complete FIA F3 Asian Championship Winter Series results 2019

 * DNS=Did not start
 * Ret=Retired
 * DSQ=Disqualified
 * C=Race cancelled

Complete W Series results 2019
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)