Photo: Italiaracing
Emirati karter Keanu Al Azhari has earned a paid-for seat in Spanish Formula 4 next season after winning the fifth running of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout.
After two days of on-track testing in F4 cars at Navarra, in addition to off-track assessments, the 14-year-old was chosen by the organising All Road Management company’s jury as the best of the six finalists and will race for MP Motorsport in 2023.
Italiaracing, which was present at the shootout, reported that Al Azhari set the pace on the second afternoon of running, which was split into two sessions. He headed Alpine Academy affiliate Matheus Ferreira, French karting star Evan Giltaire, Italy’s Cristian Bertuca, who came fourth in last year’s WSK Open Cup, his OK kart rival Gabriel Gomez from Brazil and Dutch shifter karter Kris Haanen.
In 2022, factory Tony Kart driver Al Azhari has also raced on OK and KZ2 shifter karts, his rookie year in both, coming 36th in the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship and 43rd in the World championship. Last year he was ninth in the Champions of the Future series on OK-Junior karts and 24th in the European championship.
All Road Management is run by Nicolas Todt, son of former Ferrari Formula 1 boss and FIA president Jean Todt, and backs several drivers primarily across karting and single-seaters.
Its Richard Mille-sponsored shootout has so far provided F4 seats for Enzo Valente, current FIA Formula 3 racer Rafael Villagomez, French F4 title contender Hugh Barter and his Spanish F4 rival Tymoteusz Kucharczyk who was the first recipient of the prize to race with MP after previous winners landed French F4 seats instead.