From sim to F4: Deagen Fairclough made the jump from the rig to the front of the standings, kickstarting his racing career. Luca sat down with the British F4 Championship leader at Knockhill.
Back in 2022, a sim racing series called F4 Racing Star promised a fully-funded real world racing drive in British F4, the same championship that Lando Norris won in 2015 and where Oscar Piastri was runner-up in 2017. The prize was won by then 16-year old Deagen Fairclough, who went on to race for JHR Developments the following year.
In his first season, he scored two wins and five further podiums, placing him third in the final standings. He has carried that momentum into his second season in F4 with a move to Hitech Plus Eight, winning nine races and finishing on the podium an additional four times across 21 races. With nine races left in the season, Fairclough has an incredibly healthy lead of over 100 points.
Before the final race of the meeting at the most recent round in Knockhill, we caught up with Fairclough to discuss how sim racing led to him being able to put his foot on the F1 feeder ladder.
OverTake: Prior to competing in F4 Racing Star, what were some of your most noteworthy achievements?
Deagen Fairclough: I've been karting since I was five, always teamed with my dad and ran as a privateer since racing is so expensive. It was always very nice to beat the guys who were paying to go into the teams. Before the Racing Stars competition, I won a different scholarship but I entered a year too young, so we only did it for the experience.
We got two championships in karting, they were only club level though, nothing too big like Kartmasters or the European championships. All of those are up there along with winning F4 Racing Star.
How did you first hear about the competition?
It was across social media, I first heard about it just before Christmas but I didn't take full notice of it because I thought it was too good to be true. Anyone will see 'Win a fully funded drive in F4' and you there is no way that it was real. But a friend of mine was competing and insisted I should enter.
Then I actually read about it in full detail. Now fast forward, I am in my second year of F4 and I am very lucky to be here.
Since winning, how dramatically has your life changed?
Very dramatically. Everyday is a training day, even on a chill day. I think training for me is honestly quite a relaxing way to free out the seriousness of a race weekend. Also the simulator at home where you can just hop on and have a load of your friends just playing around and having a good little battle with them, it is quite stress relieving.
Life has been unbelievable, it will only get better the further up the ladder I can go. Every moment feels like a dream come true.
Had you not won the competition, how do you predict your career would have been?
Well, nothing like this for sure. We would have done as much as we could have to get into some other sort of racing. But of course, F4 being the first major step on the ladder towards F1, it would not have been anywhere near as significant as it is currently, certainly would not have been a junior formula series.
We are a working class family, so we certainly would have been in a bit of a pickle had we not won the competition. But I put my heart and soul into it because I knew the prize at stake.
How has your F4 campaign been going and what do you believe you will be doing next year?
I don't know fully what I'm going to be doing next year, I've just been focusing on getting the results, how I perform and train. If I can prepare myself potentially for a test in a GB3 or even a Formula 3 car, I will be ready to do just that.
Focusing on this year, still got three rounds left to wrap up the championship, just got to keep it consistent for the rest of the season so who knows what next year could bring? Two years ago, I would not have ever expected to be in this position, open wheel racing. Racing can be very cutthroat, you just have to do the best you know you can and hope it's enough.
How about your presence within competitive sim racing events?
I have been maintaining as much of a presence as my schedule allows, I've been so busy being away at the workshop, headquarters, training with my team, test days after a race weekend, there is of course a lot going on so you have to be on your A-game.
But when I'm at home, it's my alone time to just hop on the sim and have some laps, it's prepping at the same time as having fun. I've been offered to do British F4 Esports again which I did in 2022, I'll be more than happy to do that.
If you want to follow Fairclough's progress for the rest of the season, you can tune in to the British Touring Car broadcasts on ITV in the UK on Sundays. The remaining rounds are at Donington on 25 August, Silverstone on 22 September and Brands Hatch on 6 October.
Will you be following the remainder of Deagen Fairclough's British F4 campaign? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
Back in 2022, a sim racing series called F4 Racing Star promised a fully-funded real world racing drive in British F4, the same championship that Lando Norris won in 2015 and where Oscar Piastri was runner-up in 2017. The prize was won by then 16-year old Deagen Fairclough, who went on to race for JHR Developments the following year.
In his first season, he scored two wins and five further podiums, placing him third in the final standings. He has carried that momentum into his second season in F4 with a move to Hitech Plus Eight, winning nine races and finishing on the podium an additional four times across 21 races. With nine races left in the season, Fairclough has an incredibly healthy lead of over 100 points.
Before the final race of the meeting at the most recent round in Knockhill, we caught up with Fairclough to discuss how sim racing led to him being able to put his foot on the F1 feeder ladder.
OverTake: Prior to competing in F4 Racing Star, what were some of your most noteworthy achievements?
Deagen Fairclough: I've been karting since I was five, always teamed with my dad and ran as a privateer since racing is so expensive. It was always very nice to beat the guys who were paying to go into the teams. Before the Racing Stars competition, I won a different scholarship but I entered a year too young, so we only did it for the experience.
We got two championships in karting, they were only club level though, nothing too big like Kartmasters or the European championships. All of those are up there along with winning F4 Racing Star.
How did you first hear about the competition?
It was across social media, I first heard about it just before Christmas but I didn't take full notice of it because I thought it was too good to be true. Anyone will see 'Win a fully funded drive in F4' and you there is no way that it was real. But a friend of mine was competing and insisted I should enter.
Then I actually read about it in full detail. Now fast forward, I am in my second year of F4 and I am very lucky to be here.
Since winning, how dramatically has your life changed?
Very dramatically. Everyday is a training day, even on a chill day. I think training for me is honestly quite a relaxing way to free out the seriousness of a race weekend. Also the simulator at home where you can just hop on and have a load of your friends just playing around and having a good little battle with them, it is quite stress relieving.
Life has been unbelievable, it will only get better the further up the ladder I can go. Every moment feels like a dream come true.
Had you not won the competition, how do you predict your career would have been?
Well, nothing like this for sure. We would have done as much as we could have to get into some other sort of racing. But of course, F4 being the first major step on the ladder towards F1, it would not have been anywhere near as significant as it is currently, certainly would not have been a junior formula series.
We are a working class family, so we certainly would have been in a bit of a pickle had we not won the competition. But I put my heart and soul into it because I knew the prize at stake.
How has your F4 campaign been going and what do you believe you will be doing next year?
I don't know fully what I'm going to be doing next year, I've just been focusing on getting the results, how I perform and train. If I can prepare myself potentially for a test in a GB3 or even a Formula 3 car, I will be ready to do just that.
Focusing on this year, still got three rounds left to wrap up the championship, just got to keep it consistent for the rest of the season so who knows what next year could bring? Two years ago, I would not have ever expected to be in this position, open wheel racing. Racing can be very cutthroat, you just have to do the best you know you can and hope it's enough.
How about your presence within competitive sim racing events?
I have been maintaining as much of a presence as my schedule allows, I've been so busy being away at the workshop, headquarters, training with my team, test days after a race weekend, there is of course a lot going on so you have to be on your A-game.
But when I'm at home, it's my alone time to just hop on the sim and have some laps, it's prepping at the same time as having fun. I've been offered to do British F4 Esports again which I did in 2022, I'll be more than happy to do that.
If you want to follow Fairclough's progress for the rest of the season, you can tune in to the British Touring Car broadcasts on ITV in the UK on Sundays. The remaining rounds are at Donington on 25 August, Silverstone on 22 September and Brands Hatch on 6 October.
Will you be following the remainder of Deagen Fairclough's British F4 campaign? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
