by Formula 1 welcomes three rookies to the starting grid next season. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli is the son of a former racing driver and F4 team owner. Jack Doohan from Alpine is the offspring of former motorcycle world champion Mick. The father of Ollie Bearman, who is moving to Haas, is the founder and CEO of an insurance company. All three drivers were propelled into Formula One by the only thing that fosters talent, wealth and connections in the sport.
Deagen Fairclough, 18, is the son of a kitchen fitter named Gaz. There aren’t many of them in the F1 paddock, neither kitchen fitters nor Garys. When Fairclough was growing up in Crawley, there was hardly any cash. It still isn’t. He had to switch from karting to Ford Fiesta racing through a scholarship, but he couldn’t even finance this hobby on a regular basis. So he retreated to his bedroom and honed his skills on a simulator.
Two years after swapping the bed for a race track thanks to a ground-breaking talent competition, ROKiT Racing Star, launched by the eponymous global technology and services company, Fairclough is on the shortlist for the Autosport Young Driver of the Year award “. As the 2024 ROKiT FIA British F4 Champion, he set a number of records including most race wins (14), podiums and fastest laps.
Next season he moves up to GB3, which his main backer, ROKiT founder and entrepreneur Jonathan Kendrick, hopes will ultimately earn him a place in Formula 1, the culmination of an unprecedented experiment, a sim racer into a real one Convert racing cars.
“With Deagan we might have found someone who could do it if we could finance him,” says Kendrick, who started his motorsport career half a century ago as a Formula 1 tire fitter I.
“Motorsport is not very democratic, it depends on how much money you have. F4 is full of rich kids. Wouldn’t it be great, we thought, if we could do a pop idol thing and bring out the next Ayrton Senna? That’s what we did.”
Thousands of armchair racers took part in the competition, with the top 20 winning a place in the final at Bolton University, where they competed on standard F1 simulators for the top prize of a seat in the 2023 British F4 season.
“It was about kids plugging in their computers, sitting there with the steering wheel and paddle shifters, and trying it out. Many of those who made it to the finals couldn’t handle the real simulator experience, let alone a real car. But Deagen did it.”
F4 proved to be a steep learning curve.
“He had never been in a single-seater before. Things went downhill in the first three quarters of the 2023 season. He was just too eager. He then studied under the tutelage of Oli Oakes [now team principal at Alpine] at the Hitech GP, and he won the last three races. It was amazing what he did this year as he cleaned up in his second season. Next year he will be on a team that can win. He’s more than good enough.”
Being fast in the simulator is necessary, but not sufficient. There’s hardly any sense of speed in a rig, there are no neck-splitting G-forces, and if you crash you just press a button and keep going. Getting into the cockpit for the first time was both a thrill and a challenge.
“The biggest differences are the grip levels,” says Fairclough I. “Simulation is great for learning routes, learning braking and steering points, accelerating, etc. So when you arrive you can do your best.
“When I first got in the car I was just trying to process the speed. You don’t really feel speed in the simulator. You don’t have a rush of adrenaline coursing through your body. And of course you can afford to go out on the sim. There is no damage. You have to be much more attentive when you’re riding wheel-to-wheel with another driver. It took me a year to develop the understanding and feel for competing against others.”
F4 cars reach 165 mph on the straight and more than 100 mph in some corners. Deagan began his first season before he was legally allowed to drive on the road. He still wonders why driving slowly on the highway would get him a speeding ticket.
“Qualifying laps on challenging circuits like Brands Hatch and Zandvoort are the best, just the adrenaline rush of going around corners at 100mph. It’s an incredible feeling to master every single corner at high speed.”
Funding a season at a top team costs £450,000 in F4, around £1m in F3 and around £5m in F2. The Fairclough family struggled to raise the £30,000 required to run a season at the Fiestas.
“My dad was my mechanic and my mom did the catering,” Fairclough recalls.
“There was a lot of stress. They worked seven days a week. Without them I wouldn’t be racing now.
“Formula 1 has been my dream since I was five years old. My father went to an indoor track with his friends. They were teenage parents. When he came back he said, “Deagen would absolutely love this,” so he took me to Daytona, a small indoor track, and from that day on I fell in love with it. But we are a working class family. We actually lived on a few cents. But they were able to get me a little Bambino go-kart. I ate all my meals in it because it was in the living room.”
With only 20 drivers on the F1 grid, Fairclough is still climbing Everest in his stockings. The ROKiT sponsorship and association with Oakes at Alpine have gotten him this far, but to move forward he needs the support of blue chips.
“Winning ROKiT was like winning the lottery. It changed my life and allowed me to enter the racing industry [ROKiT] “I want to keep it going,” he adds.
“We always accepted that we were behind. We didn’t have the money to send me to F4 to test for a year at 14 and be ready for a full F4 season at 15 [like Bearman, Doohan and Antonelli]. Once you do that, they throw you into F3 and then F2. So they get there quickly because they have the financial support. F4 is recognized, but not as much as an 18 year old in F2. This is the Golden Boy route. I just have to work harder.
“But it doesn’t faze me. I know I have the speed and the talent. I never thought I would one day drive in single-seater racing. Our goal was more of a GT or touring car track. I drove karts until I was 13, no big teams, just me and my dad at club level, no big series like SuperOne where most people take part, like Lando Norris, or European Karting Championships.”
Five years ago the Faircloughs sold all their karting equipment because they couldn’t afford to go up and bought a sim kit instead. He didn’t know it then, but it would change the course of his life. “I still have the same bike, monitor and pedals. This year I was able to show my potential. I am committed to being successful, making the dream come true and racing in Formula 1.”
