Meet Aseel Al Hamad, the Saudi female trailblazer that jumpstarted racing engines and the fight to include women in the motorsport industry (pun intended). As the board member of the Saudi Motor Federation, we were happy to discover that this Saudi beauty masters being an awesome polyvalent woman.
Aside from roaring the world of motorsport in KSA, Aseel is the OG boss-lady and entrepreneur behind integrated interior design agency IDegree Design that just turned a decade old. She fills her days with interior design, raising her children, and garnering her hobby-turned-profession: motorsport.
“I've always dealt with motorsport as a passion or hobby. Every time I have a weekend or long holidays, I travel to take some courses and do some racing…This is what I do. Sundays, for example, I never schedule a meeting just to make sure that I can watch the F1 race,” Al Hamad told Forbes.
The successful entrepreneur credits her ever-growing experience in the business world to where she is now. Being a boss-woman has helped her keep her head high when it comes to advocating the presence of women in driving cars and motorsport.
Saudi woman racer Aseel Al Hamad who has never raced in her home country before, completes an emotional drive in a Jaguar F-TYPE. More power to you! @JLR_News #SaudiWomenDriving pic.twitter.com/ihhfxFECEy
— Tata Group (@TataCompanies) June 26, 2018
Before the driving ban was lifted in 2018 in Saudi Arabia, Al Hamad had a strong support system that believed in her racing dreams. Her family always pushed her to follow her ambitions; she actually learned how to drive when she was 13 in her grandpa’s farm. She then learned how to drive on a racecourse and flew to different countries to master her racing skills with intensive lessons.
“Entrepreneurs have a mindset that's always looking up to new opportunities, that are always innovative, and they're always looking for challenges,” she explains. “The feeling that you get when you're around a racetrack or when you're driving a car, you feel your own control. You're in the driver’s seat. So, it's a very beautiful feeling that you get on a racetrack and because I'm an entrepreneur I'm always looking for new ideas; we like to do things fast. We always like to jump from one idea to another and other. This is what I found in racing. It's fast. It's very challenging,” Aseel said.
On the occasion of the lifting of the ban on women driving, Saudi race car driver Aseel Al Hamad did a victory lap today around Le Castellet's Paul Ricard track ahead of the French Grand Prix.pic.twitter.com/6g53uYmDy2
— Mohammed Khalid Alyahya (@7yhy) June 24, 2018
After shining in Diriyah’s Formula E’s 2019 season, Al Hamad now heads up the women motorsport and encourages more women to take part in this thrill-seeking journey. “I want to make sure that I build all the grassroot and build all the programs and foundation,” she added.
