Basil Shaaban
| Basil Shaaban | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Lebanese |
| Born | March 27, 1980 Beirut (Lebanon) |
| 2012 F3 Euroseries | |
| Debut season | 2007 |
| Current team | Prema Powerteam |
| Car no. | 5 |
| Former teams | HBR Motorsport |
| Starts | 60 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Best finish | 17th in 2009 |
| Previous series | |
| 2006, 2008 2005-06, 2006-07 2005 2005 |
British F3 A1 Grand Prix F3000 ProSeries Italian F3 |
Basil Shaaban (born March 27, 1980 in Beirut) is a Lebanese racing driver, and was raised primarily in Abu Dhabi. Shaaban graduated with a Bachelor degree in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Contents |
[edit] Early racing
It was in Lebanon at the age of 14 that Shaaban had his first taste of racing. At the Circuit des Champions go-karting center near Brummana, he enjoyed pushing the car's 5 and 9 horsepower (6.7 kW) engines to their limits. Finding the racing line and controlling the kart's behavior naturally to him. Each time Shaaban's family went back to Lebanon, he would go to the circuit. Eventually, he worked his way up to driving the circuit's fastest 16 horsepower (12 kW), 100 cc, 2-stroke karts.
[edit] Racing in university
Within two years of going to Berkeley, Shaaban could no longer hinder his passion. At that point, he knew he would be happiest as a professional Formula driver. So, in the footsteps of all the great Formula Series drivers, he knew the ladder he had to climb, and thus began his career racing go-karts. He bought a 23 horsepower (17 kW), 100 cc kart from the US manufacturer Trackmagic Karts, based in San Francisco, and began racing in the Northern California region alongside his studies. Over the next few years he won several races, up through the highest level of US karting: Formula ICC.
[edit] Entry into formula cars
After graduating from Berkeley, in 2004 Shaaban began racing in Formula Renault 2000 in the USA and Formula Ford 1800 in the UK. He became the first Arab to win a Formula Ford 1800 race in Europe.
[edit] A1 Grand Prix
Shaaban was one of A1 Team Lebanon's drivers for the inaugural 2005-2006 season of the series, alongside Khalil Beschir and Graham Rahal. Unfortunately, the country's lack of racing experience was apparent as none of the drivers scored any points. However, Shaaban scored Lebanon's highest finishing position of the season in the Feature race in Estoril, Portugal: 11th out of 24 countries.
Shaaban inaugurated A1 Team Lebanon's second season when he raced at the A1GP 2006-2007 season-opener in Zandvoort, Holland.
[edit] Complete A1 Grand Prix results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005–06 | Lebanon | GBR SPR PO |
GBR FEA PO |
GER SPR |
GER FEA |
POR SPR 18 |
POR FEA 11 |
AUS SPR Ret |
AUS FEA 12 |
MYS SPR |
MYS FEA |
UAE SPR Ret |
UAE FEA 16 |
RSA SPR 17 |
RSA FEA Ret |
IDN SPR 17 |
IDN FEA Ret |
MEX SPR |
MEX FEA |
USA SPR |
USA FEA |
CHN SPR |
CHN FEA |
23rd | 0 |
| 2006–07 | NED SPR 16 |
NED FEA Ret |
CZE SPR |
CZE FEA |
CHN SPR 19 |
CHN FEA 13 |
MYS SPR |
MYS FEA |
IDN SPR 19 |
IDN FEA Ret |
NZL SPR |
NZL FEA |
AUS SPR |
AUS FEA |
RSA SPR |
RSA FEA |
MEX SPR |
MEX FEA |
CHN SPR |
CHN FEA |
GBR SPR |
GBR SPR |
23rd | 0 |
[edit] SHAABAN2F1
Shaaban officially announced in October 2006 his bid to become the first Arab to reach Formula One through his program SHAABAN2F1. At a press briefing that he held in Dubai, which was supported by the presence and endorsement of 14-time Middle East Rally Champion Mohammed Ben Sulayem, Shaaban appealed to companies and investors in the Middle East to enter the arena of international athlete sponsorship by supporting his historic mission.
[edit] Formula Palmer Audi
On 1 February 2007, Shaaban tested a Formula Palmer Audi car at Bedford Autodrome in England with a view to taking part in the UK-based series in 2007. His fastest lap time put him among the fastest to test the FPA car that year.[1]
[edit] Formula Three Euroseries
Shaaban has competed in the series since 2007, which was his first full season of car racing. He spent his first two seasons (2007-2008) at HBR Motorsport, before moving to Prema Powerteam for the 2009 season where he has shown significant improvement, qualifying in the top-six and running in the top-four during the season. At the 55th attempt, Shaaban took both his first top-ten finish and his first Euroseries points for seventh in Barcelona. In the second race, he started from the front row due to the series' reverse-grid system for the top eight finishers in the first race. Although he was passed by Alexander Sims, Shaaban held on to finish third.
Another notable result in 2009 was being ranked 12th in the Masters of F3 at Zandvoort, which brought together the top thirty-six F3 drivers in Europe from the Formula Three Euroseries, British, German, Spanish and Italian F3 championships.
