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FormulaNerds spoke to Deagen Fairclough, the current British F4 championship leader, all about his career so far, but also the impact of sim racing on his development and motorsport journey.
A driver’s career usually starts at a young age in karting. From there, they decide if they want to pursue single-seater racing or try another avenue in the world of motorsports.
Formula 1 is the goal for many young drivers, but as we’ve seen in the last couple of years, it is notoriously difficult to make it into F1. The reason being that with only 20 seats on the grid, there are very few available spaces each year.
However, before a driver can earn a seat in F1, they have to work their way up the single-seater ladder, competing in the feeder series of Formula 2 and Formula 3. Before that, though, there are several other junior championships for racing drivers.
One of which is the British F4 Championship.
Deagen Fairclough, driving for Hitech Pulse-Eight, an established FIA feeder series team, is currently competing in his second campaign in British F4. The young British driver leads the championship after five rounds, having achieved five race wins and a total of 225 points, giving him a 30-point gap to Alex Ninovic in P2.
FormulaNerds met Deagen at the Royal Automobile Club for an event hosted by Diagonal Comms and Asetek SimSports. Since then, we had the opportunity to speak to Deagen in more detail about his motorsport career.
Starting out in motorsport
Deagen had an unusual yet fascinating start to his racing career. Whilst he did begin karting at only five-years-old, getting into the sport through his dad, his progression saw a different journey.
Having competed in go-karts for seven years, Deagen sold all of his karting equipment to make the switch to cars. He told FormulaNerds that the reason behind selling the equipment was to get a simulator. He then “did a year on the simulator, practising the manual gearboxes, the clutch” etc., and after that, he entered the Junior Saloon Car Championship Scholarship.
However, Deagen entered a “year young” and so didn’t have any expectations. But fortunately, he was announced as the winner. From there came the Fiesta Junior Championship, but Deagen entered into that as a guest and whilst it was “very successful”, he didn’t get to keep the points he had earned.
Deagen admitted to FormulaNerds then that he felt lost, not really knowing what he was going to do. He said:
“At the end of the season, because that was a guest round, I lost those points. That was the reason I didn’t get the championship win and then we were in a bit of a pickle. We didn’t know what we were going to do, what our next step was.”
Luckily for Deagen, his dilemma of having an unknown future coincided with the announcement of the ROKiT Racing Stars Competition.
‘ROKiT have helped massively to get me here’
ROKiT Racing Stars is an initiative founded by Jonathan Kendrick and Bob Fernley as a way to give something back to young drivers and remove the financial obstacle that came on the journey of progression to top-level motorsport.
The theory behind it, as stated by the Chief Marketing Officer of ROKiT, Bruce Renny, is that “if you’re good at sim racing and you’re deemed safe enough and good enough to be awarded a license to race, you might be very good in the real world on a real track”.
And for Deagen, it proved to be just the helping hand he needed.
When asked by FormulaNerds about his time in the ROKiT Racing Stars eSports Competition, Deagen said:
“I couldn’t actually believe it when I first read the article that the main prize would be a fully-funded British F4 seat. I was like, ‘That is huge. Let’s put all our hard work and effort into that.’
“I took days off school to get on the sim and keep testing and training, physically. We saw that and I was 100% entering into that and a lot of hard work went into it and we were able to get to the final at the University of Bolton.
“That pressure at that point was immense, it was so so scary. But I was able to control my emotions and come out on the top.
“I’m very fortunate in the position I am, obviously, ROKiT have helped massively to get me here and obviously, this is on the route to the dream, which is F1.”
Breaking News! ?
From #simracing to the real track!@rokit Racing Star F4 #Esports Competition winner Deagen Fairclough secures fully-funded seat in @JHRdevelopments #F4 Team for the @BritishF4 Championship! ?
Congratulations Deagen! ?
Full story ? https://t.co/rWqqCuS5Cp pic.twitter.com/spSDVwsr2l
— RACING STAR (@RacingStar_com) March 27, 2023
Competing in British F4
After excelling in the ROKiT Racing Stars competition, Deagen earned a fully-funded British F4 seat. He’s racing with Hitech Pulse-Eight, which is a new team for him this season. FormulaNerds spoke to Deagen about driving for Hitech as well as his season so far.
Speaking on whether or not switching teams has been challenging, Deagen said: “Not really because the team is so professional and they’re in the likes of F3 and F2, so you see the drivers when you go to the facility and you train.
“It’s nice to have that atmosphere and everyone’s so polite and always pushing you for the best results. When you have great people around you, you end up doing even better so you learn a lot more. I’ve been taking advantage of the facility. They’ve got the simulators there and a PT that I use often and he sets me training programmes because Silverstone is quite far for me, so whenever I’m not able to come into the facility he can set me a training programme for the week.
“It’s helped massively and I’ve really enjoyed joining Hitech. I would like to progress up the ladder with them as well, so I don’t know really. It’s a really professional, but fun environment.”
The lows of motorsport
Throughout the interview, Deagen spoke to FormulaNerds about how tough motorsport actually is. He touched on the “pressure that you have on your back when you’ve got a sponsor funding you”, as he does in ROKiT; Deagen admitted that it is “immense” and you have to “learn from all the mistakes that you have along the way.”
The Hitech driver reflected on his first season in British F4 and how he has grown since then, partly due to his current racing team. Deagen said: “I think last season because we won that competition, I was so eager to perform and get results as quick as possible.
“We had unfortunate mistakes, which were my fault on some of them. For example, we’d go for an overtake, but it wouldn’t be a complete overtake, it would be like a send. Hopefully, it sticks and then you gain the position, but when I do a send, someone can turn in… You can get a penalty from it if the person has come off worse.
“I was just so eager last year because I didn’t know what was coming for the next season, so I just wanted to be the best as possible as quick as possible. But now I’ve got the right mindset. Hitech have helped me have the right mindset and approach to a race weekend. I’m a lot more calm, we’re just going with the flow, to be honest.”
And the highs
Looking at the highs of motorsport, Deagen spoke about his victories this British F4 season. He specifically mentioned his win at Brands Hatch earlier this year. Talking to FormulaNerds, he said:
“Obviously the first round, first race, was quite nice to win to start the season right. Brands Hatch, we were starting on pole and led from start to finish. The one that stands out is obviously Race 3 where I started on pole, but I didn’t get the greatest of starts and Alex was able to get past me. I was then pushing as hard as possible following behind Alex.
“These cars are so difficult in dirty air and Brands is such a small circuit so I didn’t really think that I would be able to get the position back but I knew we were a lot stronger on pace and I just kept pushing and waited until his tyres wore out.
“There were a few moments we had that were very close but hard racing and then, we came off able to overtake at the end and get that win. So that was a nice feeling when we crossed the line.”
Looking ahead to 2025
With his current performance in British F4, Deagen is within touching distance of the championship. Of course, there are still five race weekends and anything can happen, but the young driver has certainly impressed thus far.
FormulaNerds asked Deagen whether he knows what his plans are for 2025 and whether they include FIA Formula 3. In response, Deagen confirmed it’s an “unknown” at the moment but he has some ideas of possibilities.
“It’s a little bit unknown at the moment for me. I’m leaving that one to ROKiT and Hitech. I’m just performing at my best and getting the results for the team and everyone involved and then they can decide where’s best for me to approach.
“I think GB3 is the most ideal but FIA F3 would be another dream to get into but like I say, FIA F3, you have to have that confidence that you’re going to win that championship as soon as you enter. You can’t afford to lose a race because as you can see this season the championship points are so close.
“I think GB3, they’re going to be quite equal to FIA F3 but just in the UK and a little bit abroad. I think that will get you physically fit as well, obviously, the downforce, there’s a lot of aspects, the technique to driving as well will be quite similar to FIA F3, so you get that one year of trying to win the championship but a lot of testing at the same time. Then you’re prepared to hit FIA F3 and go for that championship win.”
Deagen’s next race will be at Zandvoort – a new track for British F4 – next weekend. As for ROKiT, they will be conducting a second year of the ROKiT Racing Stars Competition as well as releasing a TV documentary all about the inaugural season that saw Deagen take victory.
The first two episodes of the documentary are available to watch via the ROKiT Flix app and online. It tells the story of the ‘sim to circuit’ competition and details the beginning of Deagen’s motorsport journey.
Headline image: ROKiT Industries