Young women from across the Red Sea city were invited to witness inside the paddock across the race weekend, fuelling their hopes to pursue their passion for motorsport.

In line with Formula E’s Girls on Track initiative and wider Saudi Ministry of Sport ambitions, girls and young women were across the paddock and in the stands, with over 48% of attending fans and 60% of volunteers across the Jeddah E-Prix weekend, women and girls.

With Reema AlJuffali and Farrah AlYousef representing Saudi in Formula 1 Academy, the Kingdom has taken significant strides in getting young Saudi residents into the sport, since its first hosting of Formula E in 2018.

Events including the Formula E Jeddah E-Prix provide the necessary fuel for young Saudi students to pursue a career in the sport, with an increasing university programs helping to encourage those wishing to pursue motorsport as a career choice, too.

A familiar face at race weekends in Jeddah, Elen aspires to be an automotive engineer in racing: “My dream one day is to be an automotive engineer or a car designer for events like these. The cars just give you pure adrenaline – the structure of the car is so carefully crafted and makes you say ‘wow’. Being here makes me think about coming back as a volunteer to be part of the race weekend again.”

Already enrolled in Williams Racing’s summer program, Layla dreams of returning to the Jeddah paddock as a mechanical engineer: “I love motorsport, so this is a really unique opportunity to be in the pitlane. I’d love to be a mechanical engineer and back in the paddock one day, hopefully with Williams in F1. I’ve even signed up for their summer program for sim-racing and hopefully I can join their junior engineering program in the future.”

A Cupra Kiko fanatic, Haya aims to take a seat on the pit wall as a strategist for the team in the future: “I’ve met so many amazing women already involved in the sport. This experience showed me how I can be involved as previously I didn’t think this would be possible. I hope one day to be a strategist with Cupra Kiko, I find the strategic side of the sport to be so interesting and how they plan for a successful race.”

With more than 60% of the Jeddah E-Prix’s volunteer staff consisting of Saudi women, the event provided a platform for the next generation of Saudi motorsport enthusiasts to get up-close and inside the paddock of the all-electric sport to see their future career in action.