Emirati teenager Rashid Al Dhaheri will be drawing inspiration from the UAE's leaders as he prepares for his debut in single-seater racing this weekend.
Sporting quotes from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, on his helmet – that also carries imagery of the falcon, sand dunes, and national flag in a nod to the Emirates' heritage – Al Dhaheri will make his Formula 4 debut with PREMA Racing at Imola in Italy this weekend.
After proving his worth in karting across the region, Al Dhaheri is ready for the next step in his motor sport career – at Imola in the highly competitive F4 series.
Given the significance of the journey he is about to embark upon, Al Dhaheri is keen to honour the important figures in his life.
“I have included Arabic calligraphy in my helmet design and quotes of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed around my helmet and of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid below my visor,” Al Dhaheri told The National from his residence in the Italian city of Modena.
“Both quotes are very meaningful and inspirational to me. The sides of the helmet are decorated with my personal logo – my first name written creatively in Arabic calligraphy resembles a single-seater car.”
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed’s quote – written around the helmet in Arabic – translates to “excellence should be an inspiration for each one of us in all points”, while that of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid states that “the race of excellence has no finish line”.
That's just the motivation Al Dhaheri needs as the 15-year-old goes into action on Friday’s opening qualifier followed by the second qualifying round on Saturday and the main race on Sunday as the second youngest driver on the circuit and sole representative of the Middle East.
“I am very excited to have finally reached this level, having started my career at the age of six, and spent so many years competing at the highest levels in karting,” Al Dhaheri said.
“At the same time, I need the first months to adapt to a whole new world of single-seater racing. I have sacrificed so much to reach this point, I am going to do my very best to learn and improve in each and every race.”
Al Dhaheri turned 15 on April 8, meeting the minimum age requirement for single-seater racing. While transitioning from karting to single-seater racing can be daunting, it was always his goal.
“This will be my debut in F4 and we know that the Italian championship has always been extremely competitive with the best drivers from all over the world, many with one or two years experience in the category,” he said.
“Coming from karting, everything changes and the key will be to learn as much as possible in my first year and adapt to the various dynamics of working with the car, understanding the tyres, improving my race craft as well as working with a bigger team.”
Things have moved along rather quickly for the youngster. In 2022, Al Dhaheri was invited to participate in the 19th Supercorso Federale of the Italian Motorsport Federation where he became the first Arab driver to reach the Ferrari Driver Academy's Scouting World Finals.
In the same year, PREMA Racing announced that he would join them and make his single-seater racing debut in the FIA F4 Italian Championship.
Now that the moment has arrived, Al Dhaheri is happy with his preparation coming into this season’s opener and the progress he has made personally, but insisted it is difficult to measure development at this stage.
“I would say that for me the best achievement will be to learn as much as possible, especially at the beginning of the season, and then keep improving in every area of the work,” he said.
“I also have a target of being fully prepared for the F4 winter season in the Gulf which I intend to do later in the year.”
According to Al Dhaheri, F4 testing does not happen as frequently as in karting and there are only a handful of allocated track days available. All of which add to the challenge facing him.
“With PREMA, we have done around 11 test days this year on various tracks as well as simulator sessions,” he explained.
“Furthermore, I do mental and regular physical training. Also, I watch my diet closely. There is also a lot of reporting and documentation on test days and many technical meetings leading up to the races.”
With so much happening, it is easy to forget Al Dhaheri is still a teenager who is living with his family. That means he must switch between being a race driver on the track and a son and brother at home.
“Let’s say, at home I don’t have much say, I am in minority as I have my three sisters and mum living with me in Italy,” he explains.
“At home I am just a normal brother and son who studies a lot for high school and plays with my two little sisters.
“When I am with my team, it is an adult world, very professional and I live a full-time motorsports career.”
Al Dhaheri has picked up a few things during his time in Italy, one of them being learning Italian. He can thus communicate easily with the Italians in his team.
“It is quite an advantage because it makes the atmosphere very relaxed and communication flows easily. Actually, they always say I am the most Roman Arab in the world,” he said.
“It also helps, because the Italians are more at ease as very few Arabs enter Formula racing and they simply don’t know how to deal with us. But all in all, PREMA is an outstanding team, they are extremely experienced, professional and I feel very much at home with them.
“My race engineer and mechanics are all Italians and we have already established a very good relationship, obviously spending lots of time together. PREMA is run by a great family. It is like a big motorsport’s family.”
As Al Dhaheri takes his first steps in higher level racing, his mind goes back to how it all started in Abu Dhabi when he was still a small boy.
“It was definitely the F1 race in UAE that attracted me to this sport,” he recalled. “In 2011, at the age of three, my motorsport journey started with my first visit to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.”
A visit to the Ferrari enclosure and the riveting sights and sounds of an F1 weekend sowed the seeds of racing in him at a young age.
Al Dhaheri experienced karting for the first time in the UAE in January 2013. The following summer, he undertook a training programme in Italy, leading to his first race participation at Al Ain Raceway on October 4 at the opening round of the 2013-2014 UAE Championship. He was a runner-up there.
Since then, he has won multiple races. He is the record holder in the UAE as a five-time Dubai Kartdrome O Plate champion, Macao International Kart Grand Prix champion, and World Series of Karting (WSK) champion.
“The WSK Championship titles were definitely my biggest achievements,” he said. “Never has an Arab won them before and I took four championship titles in two different categories.
“I will never forget the first time I won a race in Italy, beating more than 100 drivers from more than 30 nationalities.
“But, when I got to the podium the ceremony had to be delayed because the organisers were not prepared to play the UAE’s national anthem! When they finally organised it and played it while I was standing on top of the podium with the UAE’s flag being hoisted, I got the chills and felt very proud.”
While his racing career takes centrestage, Al Dhaheri understands the importance of completing his education. He finished his middle school at the Western Academy in Beijing and will complete his high school online with an American institute for high performing athletes.
“Schooling is an obvious challenge because there is simply not much time left in the days and I know from a lot of my competitors that they gave up on schooling,” he said.
“I will complete high school to be eligible to access universities in the future. You never know.”
