Emirati racing driver Amna Al Qubaisi didn’t realise the impact of her story until she saw it through the eyes of others.
From the day she first took the driver’s seat at 14, her dream was to finish what her father, Khaled Al Qubaisi – the first Emirati to reach a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France – had started. She wanted to win, to hear the UAE’s national anthem play where it had never been heard before.
“I was always just trying to represent my country in a really good manner,” she tells The National. “I was focused only on results. I wanted to prove to the world that we were not there just to participate – but to win.”
In those early days, as she began turning heads on the track, she was unaware of the effect she was having. “When I was 14, my dad was very strict with my social media. He took full control – I barely even had a phone. And I’m glad he did, because of him I thought everything was normal.”
It wasn’t until years later, when she began running her own accounts, that she realised she had both changed perceptions of what a racing driver could look like – and of what an Emirati woman could be.
“A lot of girls were messaging me,” she says. “One thing that really caught my eye was when they told me their bond with their father became much better because they saw my dad supporting me.
“They told me, ‘Our father is now supporting us because we showed them: look, her dad’s supporting her in motorsports, he’s always there for her.’ Now they’re getting the same reciprocation from their dads.”
Starring in Netflix's F1: The Academy
Since then, Al Qubaisi has grown increasingly aware of the effect that her story can have. In May, along with her younger sister Hamda, she was one of the central stars of the Netflix docuseries F1: The Academy, which chronicled her final season racing for Red Bull in the all-female F1 Academy championship.
“We were really happy that we were a part of it,” says Al Qubaisi. “We got to share our personality, our side of our story, and how seriously we and our dad take this.”
At the same time, she was disappointed that her family was portrayed, from her point of view, as the wealthy upstarts compared to the seemingly more humble European drivers – even though virtually everyone gets there as the result of massive financial investment into their talent.
Al Qubaisi explains: “When we say we're Emirati, automatically, people think we have a mansion made of gold and an endless fleet of cars. But racing is very expensive and those costs apply to all racing drivers. Anyone who's joining in motorsport has the money.
“The way they made the other drivers look like they were selling stuff to be able to race is completely inaccurate. It's kind of sad that they singled us out and made it look like we were the only ones who had it easy.”
She believes, whether on screen or off, that the deck was stacked against her through the second year of her F1 Academy experience – in which she dropped to 15th in the standings a year after she had placed sixth overall, collecting two wins in her first season.
“The first year was less political, as it was the first championship to be held. My sister and I finished very strong. In the second year, it felt like they didn't want a Middle Eastern person to win. I got an engine that was around seven to 10 kilometres slower down the straights and I couldn't do much about it. I talked to Red Bull about it, and they told me, 'just deal with it'.”
When she realised winning was near-impossible, she started paying more attention to the Netflix cameras following their every move – and grew more involved in how her story was being told.
“In the first few rounds, I would tell them, 'I don't want to do anything. I'm too focused. But then I thought I might as well just take advantage of it and try to give myself some exposure for future sponsors. I said, 'I've got nothing to lose', and I gave them full access.”
That strategy, which made her one of the show's most visible stars, proved emotionally challenging as her struggles mounted.
“We were still there to win,” she explains. “So having them film me at my most vulnerable, and at my worst, was hard. I didn't want the world to know. It was a big fear of mine. But now that it's out there, I think people can relate.
“And if there's criticism against my driving ability, I don't mind. My sister takes it more personally than I do. I have a fan account that I created that I will use to start roasting them back,” Al Qubaisi laughs.
Why she moved to endurance racing
In the wake of her F1 Academy experience, Al Qubaisi, who had previously raced in Formula 4, has decided to give up on her Formula One dreams. Instead, she's charting a new course in endurance racing that has allowed her to rediscover what she loved about racing in the first place.
Moreso than in Formula racing, endurance racing tests the durability of equipment and participants. Teams of multiple drivers using the same car in shifts attempt to cover a large distance in a single event.
“When it comes to Formula racing, it's too expensive. Because of our budget, we were constantly behind the pack.
“So this year, we decided to move into endurance racing, where it's much cheaper and the costs are split between drivers. When I moved into endurance racing, it was the first time I felt like I was actually enjoying driving in a long time.”
In some ways, her path to endurance racing mirrors the fictional journey of Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes in F1 The Movie, in which Hayes finds himself constantly at the back of the pack and has to figure out a way to turn that to his advantage.
“In F1 Academy, I was always starting from the back and I took that as practice for overtaking,” Al Qubaisi explains. “I learnt to get through traffic and find a gap. Now, in endurance, I'm always catching up to the guys up front, because I know how it's done.
“In endurance racing, you have to really plan – you have tyre management, fuel consumption and overtaking through traffic – because you're racing with different categories.
“It's so much more enjoyable. In single seaters, you're just praying and hoping for something to happen. But in endurance racing, anything can happen. Someone can be leading a race and then have a problem and you have a whole hour to strategise.”
Al Qubaisi and her sister will continue their new path towards endurance racing on August 22 and 23 the Spa – Francorchamps Heat as part of the 2025 Ligier European Series. The series marks the third tier on the endurance racing ladder of Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the company behind the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
“Sharing a car, we work together and help each other. We go through data together and strategise together. Having each other makes this decision easier, as we're both really good and we know each other, so we have an advantage.”
What is the future of women in F1?
Back in Formula racing, Al Qubaisi is rooting for the many young women working towards a spot in F1 but believes the sport as not a level playing field.
“It's very difficult to have a female in Formula One, no matter how good she is, no matter how big her achievements are. The Formula One teams need to have really big trust in those female drivers.
“They will need to invest in women drivers from a young age. I think they just need to start trusting women more to be able to reach that point too.
“Because now, all the girls who are working so hard in single seaters, who've made it to the top 10, who won races, nothing is done for them. No opportunity is provided and then they end up on the sidelines as a development driver or reserve driver, which isn't enough. If it was a male competitor, he would immediately have support, a test drive in a Formula One car.”
Basic engineering was also an issue. Al Qubaisi faced difficulty with singer-seater cars that were built only for male bodies – “we can't fit in that car” – which caused her and other women drivers to complain to the FIA regulatory body to ensure cars were built for both men and women. That issue was fixed, but Al Qubaisi feels it's symbolic of the inequality that exists in the sport.
Telling her own story
As she sets off on a new racing journey with her sister, Al Qubaisi feels that every bump along the way has prepared her for the difficulties ahead – not just as a racing driver, but as a public figure.
She will rely less on how others tell her story and start to take an even greater hand in telling her own.
“I have a cameraman and we're doing our own YouTube docuseries for the racing championship. Every race weekend we show everything from our perspective and it's very authentic and very natural,” she says. “I've learnt that I don't need anything polished and professional. These days, I just have to be real.”
