Aseel’s perfect day on the track

ASEEL AL-HAMAD drove a Renault Formula One car around the French Grand Prix circuit in front of thousands of fans yesterday and declared the start of a new era for Saudi women in motorsport.

The lap of Le Castellet’s Paul Ricard track, in a race-winning 2012 Lotus Renault E20, came on the day a ban ended on female drivers getting behind the wheel on the Gulf kingdom’s roads.

“I believe today is not just celebrating the new era of women starting to drive, it’s also the birth of women in motorsport in Saudi Arabia,” she told Reuters.

“The most important thing I am looking forward to is to start seeing the next generation, young girls, trying (motorsport).

“I want to watch them training and taking the sport very seriously as a career. This is going to be really my biggest achievement.”

Sunday was not the first time Al-Hamad had driven a Formula One car, the Saudi interior designer and businesswoman trying out the same one at the circuit on June 5 as part of a familiarisation day.

But that was private, whereas yesterday was very public as part of a parade of the French manufacturer’s historic racing cars to mark the return of Formula One to France after a 10 year absence.

The car took 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, now at Ferrari, to victory in Abu Dhabi in November 2012.

“It was perfect. Everything was smooth, I felt I belong in the seat,” she said afterwards. “I loved the fact that there was an audience around...today is magical.”