Basil Shaaban


Basil Shaaban is a Lebanese racing driver, and was raised primarily in Abu Dhabi.

Early racing

Shaaban began racing in Lebanon at the age of 14, at the Circuit des Champions karting center near Brummana. Eventually, he worked his way up to driving, 100 cc, 2-stroke karts.

Racing in university

While a student at University of California, Berkeley, Shaaban bought a, 100 cc kart from Trackmagic and began racing in the Northern California region alongside his studies. Over the next few years he won several races. Shaaban graduated with a bachelor degree in astrophysics from Berkeley.

Entry into formula cars

After graduating from Berkeley, in 2004 Shaaban began racing in Formula Renault 2000 in the USA and Formula Ford 1800 in the United Kingdom. He became the first Arab to win a Formula Ford 1800 race in Europe.

A1 Grand Prix

Shaaban was one of A1 Team Lebanon's drivers for the inaugural 2005–06 season of the series, alongside Khalil Beschir and American Graham Rahal. None of the drivers scored any points, however Shaaban scored Lebanon's highest finishing position of the season in the Feature race in Estoril, finishing 11th out of 24.
Shaaban inaugurated A1 Team Lebanon's second season when he raced at the A1GP 2006–07 season opener in Zandvoort, The Netherlands.

Formula Three Euroseries

Shaaban competed in the Formula Three Euroseries beginning in 2007, which was his first full season of car racing. He spent his first two seasons at HBR Motorsport, before moving to Prema Powerteam for the 2009 season. In his 55th race, Shaaban took both his first top-ten finish and his first Euroseries points in Barcelona. In the second race, he started from the front row due to the series' reverse-grid system for the top eight finishers in the first race. Although he was passed by Alexander Sims, Shaaban finished third. In 2009, he finished 12th in the Masters of F3 at Zandvoort.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

YearEntrant12345678910111213141516171819202122DCPoints
2005–06LebanonGBR
SPR
PO		GBR
FEA
PO		GER
SPR		GER
FEA		POR
SPR
18		POR
FEA
11		AUS
SPR
Ret		AUS
FEA
12		MYS
SPR		MYS
FEA		UAE
SPR
Ret		UAE
FEA
16		RSA
SPR
17		RSA
FEA
Ret		IDN
SPR
17		IDN
FEA
Ret		MEX
SPR		MEX
FEA		USA
SPR		USA
FEA		CHN
SPR		CHN
FEA		23rd0
2006–07LebanonNED
SPR
16		NED
FEA
Ret		CZE
SPR		CZE
FEA		CHN
SPR
19		CHN
FEA
13		MYS
SPR		MYS
FEA		IDN
SPR
19		IDN
FEA
Ret		NZL
SPR
NZL
FEA
AUS
SPR
AUS
FEA
RSA
SPR
RSA
FEA
MEX
SPR
MEX
FEA
CHN
SPR
CHN
FEA
GBR
SPR
GBR
SPR
23rd0