Shaaban looks like a natural choice for

Dubai: On paper, he is perhaps the most successful driver in the Arab world, and his stock keeps rising each day as he aspires to fulfil a childhood dream — race for a Formula One team.

Meet Basil Shaaban, born in Beirut and raised in Abu Dhabi and now waiting for the flag-off for the first Formula One race to be held in the emirate later this month.

"I give myself another one or two years and I should be fully primed to race in a Formula One car," Shaaban told Gulf News before leaving for Paris to participate in the F3 Euro Series earlier this week. Shaaban's first taste of racing was back home at the Circuit des Champions go-karting centre near Beirut.

His academic pursuits took him to Berkeley, but his studies did not stop him as he realised his calling to be a professional Formula driver.

Knowing the ladder he had to climb to achieve his goal, Shaaban began by racing go-karts in North California alongside his studies, winning several races, up through the highest level of US karting, the Formula ICC.

In 2004, Shaaban graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in astrophysics. But his heart was set on something different, so he entered the Formula Renault 2000 in the US and the Formula Ford 1800 in the UK.

Since then the Lebanese driver, now 29, has worked his way up the ladder. Starting as one of A1 Team Lebanon's drivers for the inaugural 2005-06 season alongside Khalil Bashir and Graham Rahal, Shaaban moved to the F3 Euro Series in 2007 and has not looked back since then. He spent his first two seasons with HBR Motorsport before moving to a more stable Prema Powerteam for the current season where he has shown significant improvement.

Last month was historic not just for him but for the entire Arab world as Shaaban took his first Euro Series points after finishing seventh in Barcelona. And in the second race, Shaaban started from the front row due to the series' reverse-grid system for the top eight finishers in the first race, he held on to finish third — the first time that an Arab driver was on an international podium. "I have been realistically working towards my dream and I am definitely close to being a driver in Formula One very soon," Shaaban stated.

"My results and performance have brought me a step closer to my goal. As sponsors, Shell has believed in me and I am paying them back," Shaaban said.

This is Shaaban's third season on the F3 Euro Series, leading on the GP2 Series — the feeder series for F1 drivers. And from the look of it, he may not have to wait for too long to jump onto the Formula One bandwagon.

"One of the F1 teams has already approached me to being a promotional and development driver role. However, negotiations are still in their early stages and I do not want to reveal too much," Shaaban said.

"What I can say is that this is a team that has a history in Formula One. In case I do get the opportunity to be part of a Formula One set-up it would be first as a development driver in keeping with the team's commitment to tapping talent from emerging regions," he added. However, before he can actually achieve this, Shaaban will have to first put up sponsors who are willing to back him and his Formula One dreams. This is no mean task as some teams even require a driver to come along anywhere between 2 million euros (Dh10.84 million) to 10 million euros.

Fact file:

Name: Basil Shaaban

Date of birth: March 27, 1980

Nationality: Lebanese

Residence: Abu Dhabi

2005: Italian F3 Series and F3000 ProSeries

2005-2007: A1 Grand Prix Series

October 2006: Shaaban announced his bid to become the first Arab to reach Formula One through his programme called ‘Shaaban2F1'. He got support from 14-time Middle East rallying champion Mohammad Bin Sulayem, who exhorted companies and investors to back Shaaban's bid to become the Arab world's first Formula One driver.

February 1, 2007: Shaaban tested a Formula Palmer Audi car at Bedford Autodrome in England with a view of taking part in the UK-based series that year. His fastest lap time put him among the fastest to test the FPA car that year.