Khalil Beschir is a Lebanese racing driver, Motorsport expert, and F1 pundit.
Early years
Beschir was born in Bhersaf, Lebanon. As a child, watching Formula 1 and the likes of his hero, Michael Schumacher, on TV, Khalil soon developed his lifelong passion for motorsport and realised his ambition to become a racing driver. However, it was not an easy path to take; growing up in Lebanon there were no race circuits and motorsport was hardly even recognised, let alone there being any education or support structure in place. His parents were unable to finance his dream so he did everything he could to save enough money to make the trip to Europe where he enlisted at a racing school in France. The experience only confirmed to Khalil that racing was what he wanted to do and so he spent the next 3 years collecting enough sponsorship to secure a series of tests in Formula Renault 1.6. By 2004, Khalil had gathered enough funding to compete in a full race weekend at Zolder, Belgium and he made an impressive debut, finishing in the top 10 against some of Europe's best up and coming drivers of the time. With money soon running out, Khalil decided to sell his road car and he got a job working for the team in Belgium as a mechanic in a bid to get more mileage in the car and to put together a budget for another race weekend. Entering only his third race at Spa, a problem in qualifying forced Khalil to start from 42nd on the grid. An outstanding drive saw him battle his way through the field to finish 6th, taking fastest lap of the race in the process. His performances soon caught the eye of popular F1 and IndyCar driver manager, Rick Gorne, who offered to manage Khalil and run him in the BAR-Honda Drivers' Program. Unfortunately Khalil was forced to turn down the opportunity due to being unable to finance his living expenses in tandem with the program. Then the chance to represent his home country in the A1 Grand Prix series. In a shootout against 6 other drivers in Formula 3 cars, Khalil came out on top and was handed the race seat. In preparation for his A1GP debut, Khalil competed in the Italian Formula 3 Championship, finishing just outside the top 10. He was also entered for selected races of Euro F3000 where he still managed a creditable 13th in the drivers' standings despite contesting less than half the season. Khalil resides in Milton Keynes, UK.
A1 Grand Prix
In late 2005, Beschir began competing in the A1 Grand Prix series. He became the first Arab driver to race in a single-seater world championship. In the inaugural A1GP feature race at Brands Hatch while he was 7th overall, his car rolled at Paddock Hill Bend after making contact with A1 Team Italy's Enrico Toccacelo. His best finish in the series was 8th at Durban in 2008 which made him the first driver to score for the team. Beschir was one of only 3 drivers from A1GP to win an award in 2006; he won the award for "Most Extensive Product Testing". Despite being marred by instability and inexperience within the team, Khalil spent three seasons in A1GP and has since furthered his motorsport career by becoming a test and development driver for single-seater manufacturers and race teams.
F1 Pundit & Commentator
Khalil started his broadcasting career in 2010 by joining Abu Dhabi TV as their F1 & Motorsport Pundit during their term as holders of the exclusive TV rights for F1, GP2 and GP3 in all 24 Arab countries. The broadcasting rights moved to Arab sports network, beIN Sports, in 2014 and they were quick to secure Khalil as F1 TV Pundit & Analyst with a multi-year contract. Now also applying his vast and in-depth knowledge as a commentator, Khalil is the first F1 commentator in the region to have previous single-seater race experience. This allows him to offer viewers a true drivers' perspective into each and every session, and he has proved himself to be a very popular asset amongst the team with F1 and race fans. In 2019, Khalil continues to be an integral part of Formula 1's TV coverage in the MENA region as co-commentator and analyst with MBC ACTION. This move to free-to-air TV marks the latest push to increase interest in F1 across the Arabic-speaking world, a key market for the sport in the future.
Motorsport Expert
Since 2012 Khalil has been involved in many Motorsport projects on high level in the Arab world as well as working with the FIA on the Grant programme for the Young drivers development and Motorsport education in the MENA region. The program under Khalil's involvement developed to an international Motorsport development program around the world. He also represents few drivers and teams in Motorsport and Formula 1. Since 2012 Khalil became Co-Founder of Middle East Motorsport Management, AutosportME, The Sports marketing Group. In 2015, Khalil was listed in the Top 100 most powerful Arabs under 40 published by Arabian Business.
