Farah AlYousef will have her mother cheering her on from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit stands when she takes to the track for Hitech as the F1 Academy wildcard entry this weekend. It will be another poignant moment in AlYousef’s fledging motorsport career, which has already brought both success and progression at the age of 22. It is a far cry from her mother’s experience of cars. She does not drive. She never wants to learn and, regardless, for many years in Saudi Arabia she would not have been legally allowed to do so.
This will be a home race for AlYousef, not only is she Saudi Arabian, but she hails from Jeddah and has already driven an F1 Academy car around the track having taken part in a test here a fortnight ago. She is not the first Saudi to take the wildcard entry on offer in F1 Academy, the female-only series that runs its seven race weekends alongside the Formula 1 calendar. But she admits to feeling the pressure of representing a minority that has only been able to hold a drivers’ licence since 2018.
“There's definitely the pressure factor - I think it's just a matter of how you would use that pressure to refuel your motivation,” AlYousef tells Autosport on the Corniche Circuit’s Media Island, having been asked how it feels to be part of the progress being made in her country.
“The pressure has been always there, and it will always be there. Matter of fact, it might increase. I guess this is motorsport and this is being an athlete in general.
“But yes, having the pressure of representing Saudi, representing ambitions, lots of dreams for little girls, for females, for ladies is something greatly taken upon my heart.
“I'm doing my absolute best to represent them in the best way possible. But one thing that I would love to say is that I'll keep working until a great victory is achieved by that.
“Funny fact is that my mum, until this day, she doesn't know how to drive. And she wouldn't want to learn. She doesn't want to. It's quite amazing that my family will all be here. My mum, my dad, siblings as well.”
As one might expect, AlYousef’s journey into motorsport took a less-trodden path and included tackling the British weather as well as honing her single-seater ability in record time.
“As a feeling, it's quite incredible - it's a blissful feeling, honestly, and I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities that I've had to come this far,” she adds.
“I've been always interested in cars and in sports, generally. But it [a passion for motorsport] only came when I was 16 years old. I went into karting and ever since, I was like, this is the sport that I really want to dedicate myself to. And lock in and focus on.
“It's been quite a journey, starting where we started with the amount of competition that I've had locally. And then trying and doing the best that we can possibly do to gain as much experience, to represent the country, to represent Saudi in its best way possible.
“I was the female champion in 2022 for karting. I went to the SWS World Finals. And then afterwards, I moved to the UK. And that's, I think, where the fast-tracking for my motorsport journey happened.
“You know how it is in the UK with the wet conditions and the stormy and rainy weather. It can fast-track a driver's knowledge and experience with handling the car.”
A stint in Formula Woman followed, where AlYousef became the first Saudi female to qualify for a race in the series, then the Muhra Program approached her to see if she wanted to give single-seater racing a try.
“It's fair to say that the performance impressed lots of motorsport professionals, so then we had the goal of trying to qualify for the F1 Academy wildcard,” she explains.
“We had to fast-track my learning in the single-seaters. And in that phase, it was off-season. So, it was a struggle, and it was very tricky to get tests, so we had the Formula 4 Middle East Championship.
“It's quite amazing that actually that was my second or third time in the car. But it was more to fast-track my learning, and it did us quite well. We definitely had an amazing progression. And we kept improving session after session.
“Then we came here to the collective testing a week ago and did the Corniche Circuit, my hometown circuit, and did myself proud. We were able to qualify, so it's amazing.”
It is quite the journey for someone who only sat in her first competitive kart six years ago, but where does AlYousef go next?
“More progression, definitely. More experience. Definitely lots of single-seaters in the upcoming years - and lots of victories in general,” she replies with a smile.
