ABU DHABI: It has been 14 years since a three-year-old Rashid Al-Dhaheri stood outside a Ferrari garage during the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix, captivated by the cars inside and all the engineers buzzing around it.

“I was on the pit lane walk. I stopped in front of the garage, watched the cars for as long as I could,” the Emirati driver told Arab News.

“Then the mechanics saw me, so they brought me in a little bit closer, and then again a bit closer. My parents were a little bit outside and I was this small kid being able to go in.

“It was just such a great experience. And then the moment I saw the car up close, met the drivers, I came out, I went to my parents and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

He has not looked back since.

Now 17 and on the heels of his first season competing in Formula Regional, Al-Dhaheri was back at Yas Marina Circuit, to witness Sunday’s F1 title showdown between Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.

“For me, it’s just absolutely spectacular because the weekend, OK, you could assume who might win the championship, you have three options, but the beauty of the sport is you don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Al-Dhaheri said.

“There's always a human error that could happen. There’s so many variables and it’s just absolutely amazing. In this case, I’m here as a fan, someone that’s looking up to these drivers and seeing what they can do and how they manage such pressure.”

Al-Dhaheri knows a thing or two about managing pressure on a racetrack.

From the moment he told his parents he wanted to be a racing driver, his father, Ali, went online to research how he could make that happen. Al-Dhaheri found himself in a go-kart at four years of age at Al-Ain Raceway and has steadily progressed through different racing categories ever since.

This year, he joined Mercedes’ junior team and stepped up to Formula Regional.

He scored three podiums to clinch P6 in Formula Regional Middle East with Mumbai Falcons Racing and secured P8 among 39 drivers in the Formula Regional European Championship, in which he claimed three podiums and a pole position with Prema Racing.

This weekend at Yas Marina Circuit, the Yas Heat Racing ambassador was spotted having a chat with Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team principal Toto Wolff, who made sure to catch up with the junior driver at the paddock of his home track.

Al-Dhaheri met Wolff for the first time when he was barely four years old at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the Mercedes boss has kept an eye on him since.

“I was able to meet up with him yesterday, talk (about) how the season went, about the progression, and, of course, also I was able to talk about his point of view of their season, and I think they did actually a really good job,” said Al-Dhaheri, who is grateful for the guidance and support he receives from Mercedes both on and off the track.

This year, the Emirati teenager made the podium in his first race of the Formula Regional European Championship, at the Misano World Circuit in Italy, and secured his maiden pole position at the next stop in Spa.

“I’m a very competitive person, so every time I go on track, I want to do the absolute best possible and get the absolute best result,” Al-Dhaheri said.

“I think during the winter test and during the winter season when I was getting to know the car, I think we saw that there was really good potential. And then once we went on track for the first race, we got immediately a podium. And that was very nice because you could see all the work transformed into a result.

“And, yeah, it was a really amazing experience. And then I just said, ‘OK, you’re here now. Let’s keep going forward.’ I think that’s very important to know. I think in this sport, if you don’t make steps forward, you’re going backwards.”

Being part of Formula Regional allowed Al-Dhaheri to drive on new tracks he had always dreamed of competing at and while no official announcement has been made about who he will be racing for next season, he plans to do another season in that category in 2026.

“There’s going to be a brand-new car. It’s going to be very exciting because we receive the car two days before the actual race event. So there’s going to be a lot of learning to do in very little time,” he said.

“I think that’s a great experience because Formula 1 is very similar every year, they build up the cars and then they have a couple of test days and then they go on track. So it’s going to be very interesting as a driver to explore the car from zero and as well with the team. And, yeah, it’s going to be a very, very interesting season.”

The average age of the F1 grid has been falling in recent years, with lots of young blood coming in and given seats alongside the veterans of the sport.

One of those is Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who made his F1 debut this season for Mercedes when he was just 18 years old.

Al-Dhaheri and Antonelli go way back, and the latter has offered the former a fair share of valuable advice.

“It’s pretty encouraging, because I knew him from when we were kids. Of course, he was always a higher category compared to me, because I was younger, but also with the parents, we know them quite well, so it’s nice because you can see what he did, and the journey that he took, you can see how he developed as a driver, as a person inside and outside the track, and it’s very motivating,” Al-Dhaheri said.

He knows he has to bide his time though as he aspires to one day become an F1 driver.

“I think, of course, you need to have quite a bit of patience, but I think it’s also important to understand and focus on yourself, to focus on your own journey,” he added.

Al-Dhaheri has had a unique journey, not just because of how young he started in motor racing. He travelled the world with his family from a young age (his father is currently the UAE’s ambassador to Greece), speaks four languages (Arabic, English, German and Italian), and during COVID, he spent two years separated from his family, who were living in China at the time, while he was in Europe racing.

From the moment he fell in love with the sport, he never for a second wanted to be anywhere else.

“For me, racing was home. And every time I was out of the racing world, I felt something was missing from me,” he says.  

“So for me, just being part of racing in these environments, hearing the engines, (smelling) the fuel, seeing the tires, that’s just where I was basically growing up. Basically, that’s my home. And I’ve been always traveling with that environment. So for me, I always say your home, of course, is the UAE. But for me, it’s also the racetrack, wherever it goes.”

Al-Dhaheri believes he has many attributes that make him good at what he does, most importantly “being adaptive” and always wanting to be “the hardest-working driver” around.

“Always putting the most effort and doing it the smartest way because it’s not just hard work, it’s also smart hard work that makes a big difference,” he said.

He feels 2025 was a successful year for him and is pleased with where he is. While he acknowledges he could have had better results — “I always want to do the best and be the best” — he is excited about next season, and the fact that there is lots of room for growth.

“It’s important to see where you are. I think there’s one key element that I want to really work on and to develop next year and I think if I’m able to really put all that together, I feel like I would be in a really good place as a driver,” he said.

“Of course, there’s always more to learn, both technically, physically, mentally, but I think that’s a really key point for my growth and for my journey as a driver and I can’t wait. I think that’s the main focus for next year.”