She cannot legally drive on public roads yet, but 16-year-old Kareen Kaur is already hitting speeds well over 220km/h on the race track.
When tabla! last caught up with the CHIJ (Secondary) student in 2024, she came in fourth and was the top-placed female driver in the Rok Cup Singapore – a premier national kart racing championship that showcases the next generation of homegrown motorsport talent.
Fast forward two years, and Kareen has traded go-karts for single-seaters as an Evans GP driver in Formula 4 or F4 for short. She likened the transition to learning a new language.
“A kart is very raw and relies on mechanical grip, so what you feel is direct. An F4 car introduces aerodynamics, which means downforce, and the faster you go, the more the car sticks to the ground,” Kareen explained.
“That changes your braking points and how you take every corner. The car is also much heavier and far more physical to drive, so the training has to be more intense,” she added.
She trains most evenings, focusing on cardio, strength work and specific conditioning for her neck, core and arms, which take the load in the car.
On a normal school week, the secondary four student’s schedule is packed with classes, tuition, exams, netball practice, and simulator sessions with her driver coach to learn circuits.
“When there’s a race or test, it means flying out, so homework gets done on planes and in between sessions,” Kareen said.
A highlight was her debut F4 weekend in India, where she competed in selected rounds of the F4 Indian Championship 2025. The teenager secured multiple top-10 finishes, becoming the youngest Southeast Asian female driver to score points in a FIA-certified Formula 4 race.
This year, she was one of 18 drivers worldwide selected for the F1 Academy Rookie Test.
The F1 Academy is an all-female junior single-seater racing championship, where drivers compete in F4-level equal machinery and are sponsored by one of the official F1 teams such as Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.
Last year’s inaugural Rookie Test has proven to be an invaluable stepping stone, with seven drivers securing full-time seats on the 2026 grid, while an additional two have made Wild Card appearances this season.
Kareen completed a total of 58 laps around the Circuito de Navarra in Spain on Sept 11. She clocked in a time of 1:49.397 for the morning session and managed to shave off a few milliseconds during the afternoon session, but still finished P18 in both rounds.
“Through 2026, I’ve gotten faster with each test. A lot goes on behind the scenes when one is not racing so I take the small wins when I can,” she said.
One of the best parts of the programme for her was the opportunity to be in a room full of young women who “all want the same thing”.
“I’m usually one of the only girls in the garage, so it was a completely different experience. You learn a lot just from being around people at your level,” Kareen noted.
Her favourite track at the moment is the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, where she claimed pole position driving a Mazda MX-5 with Evans GP Academy for the 2026 Asia Classic Car Challenge in June.
She returned to the circuit during the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend from Oct 2 to 4 and competed in two races as part of the Formula Trophy Malaysia season’s opening event.
The first race ended with a DNF (Did Not Finish) due to an incident and a penalty pushed her to the back of the grid for the start of the second race, which she concluded in P17.
“Personally, it was so amazing to drive an F4 car through the F1 pit lane. There’s so much from this weekend that I’ll hold on to and remember,” Kareen said in an Instagram post.
She has yet to race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but will be involved in a few brand activations around the track during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend from Oct 9 to 11.
The local circuit is often considered as one of the more physically demanding races in the F1 calendar due to the heat and humidity. “There’s also no run-off, and the walls punish any mistake,” Kareen added.
As someone used to racing in such conditions, the Singapore F4 driver’s advice is to simply train for it.
“The work is in the preparation so you can hold your focus for a full race distance when your heart rate is high, and the cockpit is extremely hot. There’s no trick to it, you just have to be fit enough that the heat isn’t what beats you,” she said.
