The Automobile and Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates (ATCUAE) launched a ground breaking new project to develop young driver talent in the UAE. The inaugural UAE Motorsport Star 2011 will provide opportunities for upcoming drivers to develop the skills and attitudes they need to progress their motorsport careers encompassing drivers from ages 16 to 24 years, from all disciplines of racing such as track, rallying and karting all over the UAE.

This is the first young driver programme of its type provided by a National Sporting Association (ASN) in the Middle East and the ATCUAE want young UAE drivers competing at the top levels of world motorsport. This young driver development programme is designed to identify and train these talented young drivers in order to provide them with the skills they will require for success in their racing career.

The selection process involves a shortlist of candidates, identified by the ATCUAE, to attend a two day assessment centre on the 6th and 7th of July where they will undergo testing by sports science experts especially drafted in from the University of Ulster in the UK. Among the science experts from the UK, an expert panel has been assembled to collate all the results of the tests and choose the winner. These will be the Mohammed Ben Sulayem, ATCUAE President and FIA Vice President, Khaled Bin Shaiban, Vice Chairman of Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management and Dr David Hassan, University of Ulster senior lecturer and sports researcher.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, commented, "Education is a vey valuable thing to carry with you and these young drivers will certainly benefit strongly from this excellent programme. There are exciting drivers in the UAE and we want this young driver programme to identify these drivers and enhance their skills and techniques to give them a chance to compete on the world stage. Even though only one driver will get the chance to train in the UK, all these young drivers will benefit greatly from this experience" The drivers who were chosen for this programme, have proven their racing abilities in their respective disciplines and the testing will assess the candidates’ physical and mental fitness, and media handling skills, and will identify one successful candidate who will go forward to a week long intensive training course at one of Europe’s leading elite athlete facilities based at the University of Ulster this September.

Dr David Hassan, said, "This intensive programme will benefit these young drivers as it will show them what is required of them physically and mentally to compete on the world stage." Mr Bin Shaiban also commented, saying, "This programme is one of the most important educational motorsport platforms in the UAE and will ensure that we will have more professional participants in world motorsport. " Over the two day programme, the physical and mental assessments will take place in the Fitness Centre at the Higher College of Technology in Dubai and the media handling skills at Dubai TV studio in which the candidates will be subjected to intense media training.

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