Almost three years after the last Emirati driver won a race in F4 UAE, Dubai local Keanu Al Azhari took the first victories of his single-seater career during round two of the 2024 season. Four trips to the podium so far this year have elevated him to second in the championship standings as he hunts down Freddie Slater in the title fight, looking for glory while he embarks on his second year in F4 competition. Al Azhari spoke to Feeder Series to discuss his success and what lies ahead in the UAE and Europe.

By George Brabner

After two winless rookie F4 campaigns, Al Azhari turned a new leaf at the 2023 F4 UAE Trophy Round when he dominantly took a pair of pole positions and race wins. 

However, the Emirati couldn’t convert another two front-row starts into a competitive victory at the 2024 season opener.

A melted clutch caused by an overly-long hold of the starting lights – which Al Azhari told Feeder Series F4 UAE’s organisers TopSpeed “apologised” for due to the field-wide issues the procedure caused – meant he lost ground off the line in race one, whilst Slater snatched first from alongside him on the front row in race three. In race two, contact with Slater’s teammate, Kean Nakamura-Berta, forced him to retire.

“Everything that could have gone wrong on races one, two and three in the first weekend went wrong,” Al Azhari said. “I knew I had the speed, but the first weekend I didn’t really have the luck.”

The comeback

Moving from Yas Marina’s Corkscrew configuration to the Grand Prix layout for round two, fourth place in qualifying one and pole in qualifying two thrusted Al Azhari into the fight for victory once again. 

But on the first lap of race one, another clash with Nakamura-Berta dropped him to the rear of the field as he was forced to pit with a puncture.

“I got hit from behind and got a puncture on the first lap, so at that moment, I immediately thought my race weekend was over – naturally – but I had to keep myself calm,” Al Azhari explained. “I finished the whole lap with a puncture – a big puncture, I was down to the rim – put on a set of tires on my rear right and my engineer said, ‘Look, you have one goal now. You’ve got to finish in the top 12, then we have a chance for the rest of the weekend,’ and I just went for every move I possibly could have done!”

The race one results would set the grid for race two with the top 12 reversed, meaning the incident could have ruined Al Azhari’s weekend entirely. However, a miraculous climb of over 20 positions to 11th, then promoted to tenth by a post-race penalty for Deagen Fairclough, put the Yas Heat Racing Academy driver third on the grid for race two.

“There was nothing more I could have done, no more overtakes,” he said. “Finished in P11, which was just extremely satisfying. One of my best races, I have to say. Not in terms of results, but in terms of speed and manoeuvres, that was definitely the best.”

Compared to rookie Nakamura-Berta, who also pitted after the lap one clash and fought back to the top 12, Al Azhari’s climb was more clinical, progressing largely without incident. Forced to pass everyone on track, his knowledge of the Yas Marina Circuit and experience in F4 cars played to his advantage. 

“Because I know the track so well, I know where it’s worth it to make an overtake, where it’s not. I know when to back out, when to go for it. It’s just a matter of patience at times and a matter of [when] you need to be desperate. But it’s just finding a balance of should I go for a move now and risk all of it, or should I not? 

“And the further up I moved, the less the risk had to be. When I was in the back, I think I made a triple overtake in a corner! I just completely locked up and went straight and overtook three cars, but at that moment, it paid off. Later in the race, I had the same chance, but because I was like 15th, 16th and P12 was really close and I still had three laps, I knew, okay it’s maybe not worth it now, better just pick them off one by one and get the job done.”

Scoring back-to-back wins

Starting from the second row, Al Azhari climbed to first almost straight away under Yas Marina’s flood lights in race two. He got the jump on second-place starting Dion Gowda, who was hampered by illness all weekend, before capitalising on a mistake made by Nakamura-Berta in turn 16 to take the lead. 

He managed an early safety car restart well and retained a gap of around a second to Nakamura-Berta for the rest of the race, taking the chequered flag to score a landmark first victory without any further challenge.

“It was extremely satisfying just finally getting it done. It took years of hard work,

and against such a strong, competitive grid… I’d say it’s one of the strongest grids they’ve ever had in F4 UAE. There might not be as many cars, but I think the top 10 is very close now.

“Just to prove that I can do it is extremely satisfying because last year, I had some results, but not the consistency I wanted, and I wasn’t able to show that I’m ready to win, I’m capable of winning. Just to finally get that done and now I’m challenging for the title, it just shows that I am good and I know I can do it,” Al Azhari said. 

“I’ve always had that in me, but the luck wasn’t on my side. The experience wasn’t on my side. But for this year, I think I have a full package and I’m ready to go for everything.”

Al Azhari didn’t have to wait long to pick up his second winner’s trophy as he led from start to finish in race three. The contest was dominated by safety car interruptions and Slater, who jumped to second almost straight away, was presented with few opportunities to attack, but Al Azhari wasn’t under direct pressure.

“You could argue that there were a lot of safety cars, but in this case, it’s the same for everybody. It was cut short, but I think even if we had no safety cars, I had the speed to win. The short times that we had, I was pulling away from the cars behind and just went through with the win.” 

Bringing the UAE flag to the top step

Al Azhari’s long-awaited competitive win was the first for an Emirati driver in F4 UAE since Hamda Al Qubaisi triumphed late in the 2021 season, now a four-time victor in F1 Academy.

Having grown up in the Palm Jumeirah, which is situated less than an hour’s drive from Yas Island, and been nurtured throughout his career by his racing driver father Karim, Al Azhari’s win felt even more special on home soil.

“There’s not many drivers to come out of the UAE and to be so strong in single-seaters, simply because we don’t have that many drivers here. The karting scene has grown over the last five, six years, and I’ve gone through all the championships locally and I’ve won many championships as well, so just to work through that ladder and prove to everybody that we have good drivers here in the UAE, and it’s not as easy as you think, it is an honour. 

“I watched my dad race on these tracks for many years when I was growing up. He used to take me up on the podium with him, and now I stand there for myself, so it is amazing,” Al Azhari said.

“I know a lot of the people that work at the track. I know a lot of people that come to watch the races and they support me, and it always helps to have your local base to support you, and it just makes it a lot more special. When the people around you are happy for you to win, it’s always a nice feeling, you know?”

For drivers such as Al Azhari who are from regions without an illustrious sporting background, the biggest hurdle is having the tools to successfully step into F4 and progress beyond it. Supported by the government-backed Yas Heat team, Al Azhari is the first winner from the UAE’s own driver development programme.

“I’m extremely appreciative of them. They put together a great program. They called me around October 2022 and we had a shootout stage at that moment, and I’ve been really enjoying my time with them since I’ve joined.

“They put together a great team, I’ve got a great engineer now and a great mechanic. The atmosphere within the team is really nice and I think they’re also happy to be there, which is an important thing,” he said.

“I just think nobody has had the chance yet, has had everything in place – the opportunities, the experience, the funding – to show themselves. There have been some trials before, but something has gone wrong on the way and I just feel very honoured to represent the UAE in a good way and I think it’s just bringing up the representation of them everywhere in every series.”

Immersed in the championship fight

Slater, who is yet to finish lower than fourth this season, extended his championship lead over Al Azhari by seven points during round two despite the Emirati’s two wins. 

The Prema operation – which includes Mumbai Falcons – has been the dominant force throughout the top ten, supporting Nakamura-Berta to third in the standings, Rashid Al Dhaheri to fifth, Alex Powell to seventh and Doriane Pin to eighth.

To consistently overcome the Italian outfit is a tough ask for Al Azhari, but his hopes remain high with local powerhouse Xcel Motorsport in his corner.

“To be fighting against them is already a privilege, and it is not easy. They have so much experience. With Prema and Mumbai Falcons, they’re the best single-seater team in this grid – and in F4 Italy as well. It’s obviously not easy to beat them, but I think if I’m able to stay consistent, do my best every lap, I think it’s possible. Sure it’s possible to beat them,” he explained.

“Not many have done it before, but I think if somebody’s able to challenge them or beat them, they’ve already proved that they’re good enough to move on in the single-seater ladder, or in any other car.

“It is tough, there’s a lot of things I have to look out for when I’m racing against them, but honestly, I enjoy it a lot. It’s not every day that you get the chance to challenge for your local championship and against this many teams and these amazing drivers, so I’m just enjoying it and whatever happens, these memories will stay with me forever.”

Following a double-header at the Yas Marina Circuit, F4 UAE transitions to the Dubai Autodrome for round three. Al Azhari has only driven at the venue once since F4 UAE’s visit to the track last year – partaking in the 24 hours of Dubai with Mühlner Motorsport on 27-28 January – but he is confident that he can continue the positive run of results started in round two, especially after challenging 2023 champion James Wharton at the circuit.

“Last year, the results of Dubai were not as I wanted, but if you see round four, I was quickest in all the practice sessions, P4 and P2 in quali. Race one, I was in P3 and I got taken out, somebody spun into me, and that meant I had to start last for race two, so the results looked bad, but there was a P2 at the end. 

“You have to remember, I was challenging Tuukka [Taponen] and James, and they were the most dominant drivers of the grid, so I think I definitely have the speed in Dubai. I haven’t driven there [in a single-seater] since last year, since round four, so it has been a long time. But I think I can do well there, maybe even better than I did in Yas Marina,” Al Azhari said.

The Spanish F4 transition

The precursor to Al Azhari’s 2024 F4 UAE success was his transition to Europe with MP Motorsport following his F4 debut last year, competing in Spanish F4 after winning the 2022 Richard Mille-All Road Management shootout. Had he not earned the seat through the competition, he would “probably still be karting until now.”

Despite finishing on the podium in the UAE and claiming a pole and third place during the Spanish F4 season opener, the focus of his rookie campaign in Europe quickly turned away from the results as he adjusted to the Pirelli tyre compound, a suite of new circuits and a different team.

“I started off really well, but everyone was sort of fitting into the championship. I had a pole position, I had three front row starts at Spa and the podium, but there was so much to learn and I wasn’t really prepared to learn all of that. I’d accepted that I’m great, I don’t need to learn anything. I was just a bit stubborn, I’d have to say.

“But over the season, I learned there’s so much more to it than just driving. Your whole approach has to be different, and the results started to lack off. The performance was still there, but just the consistency, especially qualifying, I was missing out,” Al Azhari explained.

“For me it’s pretty clear. If you know why you’re fast, you can be fast in anything you drive. Any car, any circuit. You just need to understand what you’re driving, and you need to accept the limits of the car. I’ve had my engineers help me a lot with that, learning to accept that this is not right, this is right, this is how you need to drive the car,” he said.

Recently confirmed to be returning to MP Motorsport for a sophomore campaign in Spanish F4, he turns his attention to becoming a champion – potentially for the second time – after the F4 UAE season.

“Last year was for development. But I accepted that,” Al Azhari said. “I wasn’t trying to push for a result immediately, and I knew I had a long way. In the pre-season testing last year, I was about three seconds off. New team, new engine, new mechanics, new car for me, so there was a lot to learn. 

“But now that I’m back for a second year, I only have one goal, which is to win. Everybody knows that, and I will be disappointed with less than the podium because it means I didn’t do my best.”

“I’m looking forward to it and I hope I can continue a strong rhythm from the F4 UAE Championship… But I can’t forget to enjoy it. That’s what’s most important at the end of the day. We race because we enjoy it. Many people forget that.”

Header photo credit: F4 UAE