Jaber AlSabah is a 16 year old racing driver currently competing internationally in the British Formula 4 Championship. F4 is widely considered the starting point for drivers on their journey to Formula 1, and that’s the goal every driver is working towards, including Jaber.
Jaber first got into racing at the age of 12 when his dad bought him a racing sim. He was instantly hooked and would spend hours daily practicing and improving. Seeing how committed he was, his dad eventually took him karting at Kuwait Motor Town. From that point on, he knew this was what he wanted to pursue.
Jaber began his racing career in the Rotax Karting Championship, followed by the IAME series. After climbing through the karting ranks, he moved up to Formula 4 last year with a seat at Xcel Motorsport.
Kuwait has a pretty big car culture, and in some motorsports like drag racing, we’re actually very competitive. But when it comes to single seater racing, especially at an international level, it’s still pretty rare to see Kuwaiti drivers making their way up the ranks. That could be partly because until 2019, we didn’t have a proper race track in Kuwait.
Racing isn’t just a hobby for Jaber, it’s his career and something he takes very seriously. It demands a huge amount of time, focus, and dedication, and there’s very little room for error. His ultimate goal, like every driver, is Formula 1, but with only 22 drivers on the grid, he knows how competitive that path is. He thinks a more realistic route could be endurance racing like WEC or GT racing, both of which are still at a very high level.
KMT played a big role in Jaber’s journey, without it, it would have been much harder to get started, and he might never have discovered his passion for racing. Support from local companies like Gulf Cables, Warba Insurance, Motorgy, and Kuwait Airways has also helped a lot since racing is an expensive sport.
I’m a big fan of KMT, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing even younger drivers competing internationally. If you want to follow Jaber’s journey, he’s on Instagram @jab3ralsabah
Photos by Stanley Deslandes
8 replies on “A Young Kuwaiti Driver with Formula 1 Dreams”
It’s not really a “career” since he’s not earning any money from it. In fact motor sports at that level is based on how much money you’re willing to spend. Unlike other sports- motorsports tend to be for the people with the easiest access to wealth. Even Lewis Hamilton who is often portrayed as an under privileged kid who made it- actually had relatively wealthy parents who worked hard to fund him.
A career doesn’t have to mean working at a desk and getting a salary end of the month. And yes, motorsport is expensive, thanks for stating the obvious. As for Hamilton, I’ve never read or heard anyone portraying him as growing up poor. I think you’re confusing being underprivileged with the difficulties he faced growing up as a black kid in a white sport.
جابر الصباح المحترم الخلوق أحد طلابي الغاليين على قلبي أسأل الله العظيم لك الخير والفوز يارب وتحقيق أمنياتك
Side note Mark, is your instagram account working or did I get blocked? I’m checking from my actual account and side account and I can’t find you instagram..
yeah my account is still working, if you can’t see it you’re probably blocked. if you’re blocked then you must have said something really offensive or something because I don’t block for no reason.
If i havent been blocked anywhere YET then she couldnt have said anything that bad.
I didn’t say anything bad or insult you though….all I did in recent memory was I think comment “Why use AI though?” on one of your posts relating to something pet related. But I haven’t even commented anything on my side account so it’s weird that it’s blocked as well since I don’t even use that account or comment through it. You can check for yourself its @nadaryabdou
Just checked with a third account, you most definitely deleted my comment for calling out the AI use and blocked me. How you blocked my second side account is strange because I’ve never commented through it. But alas.