A Wednesday phone call asked if we would like to participate in the UAE F4 event being held in conjunction with Abu Dhabi F1 race. Of course we did - the only catch was we needed to be in Abu Dhabi the next day! Jarrett has been scheduled to do his first F4 event in January, but the opportunity to be at the biggest F1 race of the season, and to get some experience at a track he would be racing in January was too good a chance to turn down.
Picking up Jarrett from school, it was a quick change, some dinner and then off the airport for an overnight flight to Abu Dhabi. Once we arrived, we went straight to the track to fit his seat, a process that took a few hours. Even though he was shattered, Jarrett needed to get some track familiarisation, so he jumped in a cab for the 1.5 hour drive to Dubai to use the team’s simulator. After a quick hour long practice, it was back to the hotel for some sleep, and then an early start, as he needed to be at the track at 7am (3am London time) for his first and only free practice. Despite the lack of sleep, and experience at the track, Jarrett impressed being 4th fastest in practice.
After a couple of hours rest at the hotel, it was back to the track for qualification. Jarrett again impressed, qualifying 6th fastest for the first race (based on your fastest time) and 6th fastest for the second race (based on your second fastest time).
In the first race, as expected Jarrett got off to a slow start, and fell back to 10th, but got faster as the race went on. You can see his first F4 overtake below.
Jarrett then went on to complete an excellent 8 corner wheel to wheel overtake - to finish 5th. You can see this overtake in the video below.
In his second race, Jarrett got off to a better start, but still saw himself drop back to 10th. Again a couple of excellent overtakes saw him finish 8th on track.
More than just good results, Jarrett showed he could race in F4 with little preparation and sleep - a great sign. As an added benefit, he got to see Lando Norris be crowned as F1 Champion 2025.
