Vettel on his Race4Women event and his grassroots mission

On a scorching Wednesday afternoon, the sun’s rays are beaming down over a karting track north of Jeddah. Friends, family and motorsport enthusiasts have gathered to watch 20 young women race around the twisty circuit – aptly named The Track – but there is one further addition to the driving line-up, and he’s a four-time F1 World Champion.

Sebastian Vettel is on a mission at this Saudi Arabian karting track. The former Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin great is hosting his Race4Women [Challenge Me] event in a bid to further develop grassroots karting in the country, and by teaching these 20 young women the principles of racing, fitness and motorsport theory.

In the days leading up to the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, also hosted in Jeddah, it’s the perfect place to showcase to these women that a potential career in motorsport is very much a possibility should they want it to be. And, let’s face it, as karting tutors go you could do a lot worse than a man who has four F1 Drivers’ titles to his name.

“We had great feedback last time,” Vettel tells me, reflecting on the initial karting event he hosted at this track back in 2021. “The handful of girls and women we were able to get together – it was a great group and a great spirit last time.

Four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel hosted his Race4Women [Challenge Me] event at The Track in Jeddah (Image credit: V5 Projects/Orel Communications)

“But so much has happened. We’ve been in touch and stayed in touch with the track here, people who have supported us already the first time round. There was the idea to continue, to follow up. This time we had a lot more girls and women taking interest and a much bigger group of 20 young women and girls showing up and having the courage to get behind the wheel.”

Courage is very much the right word to describe this group of assembled racers. It can be a daunting prospect getting into a go-kart, but each of them has exactly the right dose of competitiveness and enthusiasm when the action gets going.

It also speaks of a country that has transformed significantly. As of 2018 women have been allowed to drive and, coupled with a boom in motorsport coinciding with the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021, that has led to more opportunities for this new generation.

IT'S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

“Generally Saudi is opening up and it’s great to see the next generation of girls and women speaking out their dreams, being able and being allowed to do a lot of the things their mothers weren’t able or allowed to do,” Vettel adds.

“There’s a lot of positive change in this country. Last time we celebrated the fact that women were allowed to drive, and I wanted to get an insight. This time there were a lot more topics and it was great to get into the exchange [with the karters] and I think it was a success. We had a blast, had a great time, shared a lot of stories and heard from them about why they’re passionate about racing.”

Vettel takes the young karters out for a track walk (Image credit: V5 Projects/Orel Communications)

‘I can’t really believe that just happened!’

The Race4Women event has been held over two days – Tuesday and Wednesday – but I’ve arrived on the second day where the on-track action is soon to be reaching its climax.

The karters have already qualified for two heat races to come later in the afternoon – the top five finishers from each race will then go on to compete in the final.

But a break in the schedule doesn’t stop Vettel from hitting the track again, only this time his student is F1 TV presenter Laura Winter; the crew here to also film a feature about the day.

“I’m still coming back down to earth a little bit – I’m still a bit giddy!” Winter says after a surreal on-track lesson.

“We asked if Seb wouldn’t mind coming out and he was really happy too, which is lovely in itself, and then I suddenly got out on track in a go-kart – suddenly aware of its power, it went a lot quicker than I thought it was going to – and I thought, ‘oh my God, I’m here with four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, following him in a go-kart, teaching me the lines of a track and how much kerb to take'. I can’t really believe that just happened!”

Sebastian Vettel hosts 'Race for Women' in Saudi

Listed among one of the “maddest things” she’s done working in F1, Winter’s time on track wasn’t entirely without incident.

“He let me through at one point so he could watch what I was doing,” she says. “I was like, ‘pressure on!’ And that’s when I span, and he was following me and he hit me! So, we had a little collision!”

‘Legitimacy and credibility’

The energy at The Track is infectious – the joy, the camaraderie and there’s even a DJ to provide the party atmosphere. But it’s not lost as to why Vettel, and this event, are here in the first place.

“Events like this are extremely important for one reason – it is for the ladies or drivers to change their own idea of themselves,” says Dania Akeel, a Saudi Arabian former motorcycle racer who now plies her trade in rally-raid. She, too, is a motorsport pioneer in this country and has come out to support the young women racing.

“If they think they don’t have a chance and they’re just here on the weekend – and it’s quiet and they just love to drive – they feel like they’re only here for that one session and they go back to their ‘real life’. That can be the experience of a lot of people.

Saudi Arabian racer Dania Akeel was also in attendance at the Race4Women event (Image credit: Red Bull Content Pool)

“But when you have an event like this, and you have Sebastian Vettel, a four-time Formula 1 World Champion coming to give them advice, that gives a signal to these ladies that they have a chance to do what he has done. That signals to these ladies that they have an opportunity to be a professional, and that they can take things to the next level.

“Events like this, they almost give legitimacy and credibility to the passion that these ladies have for the sport as opposed to it being a weekend hobby that no one knows about, and they run home after.”

As well as giving that legitimacy to their passion for motorsport, Race4Women also gives these karters an invaluable opportunity to take in advice with many queries focused on aspects we can all relate to.

“The questions they ask me, I’ve felt on track and you realise how connected we all are and how similar we all are,” Akeel explains. “At the end of it more than one of the girls told me that they were scared, they’re nervous when it’s race day.

When you have an event like this, and you have Sebastian Vettel, a four-time Formula 1 World Champion coming to give them advice, that gives a signal to these ladies that they have a chance to do what he has done.
Dania Akeel

“She’s scared when it’s competition, ‘what if I fail, what if I disappoint myself?’ These questions are universal, they stay with you until I don’t know which age, but you learn how to face yourself, you learn how to manage yourself, you learn how to calm yourself and you learn how to propel forward while having these experiences and emotions.

“I’m trying as much as I can to communicate that clearly to them, what I do as a strategy to help me move forward if and when those feelings do come up. I don’t think they’ve said anything that I couldn’t relate to – and they’re much younger than me.”

‘This is just a safe environment for them to get in and have a go’

While the crowd at The Track is predominantly made up of friends and family of the participants, as a competitor you never know who might turn up to watch you showcase your talent. And, sure enough, immersed within the cohort of onlookers is an F1 Team Principal – Alpine boss Oliver Oakes.

“A friend of mine is based in Saudi Arabia – he runs the F4 Championship here – so when he said he was popping along to this I thought it would be cool to see what Sebastian is doing,” he says.

“It’s just brilliant. It’s nice to see everyone have a good time, bonding over karting. I was just saying to someone, I think every driver will admit that karting is the best years of their life. Seeing all these girls racing hard, having banter when they come off track – it’s really good to see.”

Friends, family, and even a Formula 1 Team Principal in the form of Alpine's Oliver Oakes, were in attendance at the Race4Women event (Image credit: V5 Projects/Orel Communications)

He adds: “Obviously motorsport is growing exponentially in the region here, this [the event] is obviously helping to keep that happening. You can see as well, for a lot of the girls, this is just a safe environment for them to get in and have a go at going wheel to wheel with each other, which is brilliant.”

While F1 is in town, F1 ACADEMY is also going to be racing around the streets of Jeddah this weekend, with four full-time members of the grid taking time to turn up at Race4Women and pass on their own expertise – Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann, Red Bull’s Alisha Palmowski, Racing Bulls’ Rafaela Ferreira and Red Bull Ford’s Chloe Chambers.

And Oakes will also have an eye on proceedings in F1 ACADEMY with Hitech TGR – the junior team he still owns – running in the series, while they will be fielding Saudi Arabian Wild Card Farah AlYousef this weekend too.

“It’s kind of a small world that Farah, who’s just popped in now, obviously my Hitech team has been helping her get ready to race here in F1 ACADEMY,” Oakes explains. “[My friend] kindly lent her one of his F4 cars a couple of months back to have a go so it’s a nice full circle event with my non-Alpine hat on and my Hitech hat on.”

Farah AlYousef will race as the F1 ACADEMY wildcard in Jeddah this weekend

‘It doesn’t get better than this’

With the afternoon giving way to evening, and the sun slowly starting to dip out of sight, we have crowned the Race4Women champion following a pulsating final. Lina Hammadeh, 18, battled back from seventh to finish second in her heat, before taking the top spot in the grand finale of the day – and she was understandably delighted.

“It feels great, not only winning but being able to have been here, meet Sebastian Vettel and also to learn from him,” she says after collecting her trophy on the podium. “It was a great experience, I enjoyed racing the other girls, and also meeting them and speaking to them.

POWER RANKINGS: Who made all the right moves under the lights at the Bahrain GP?

“I’ve had the chance to learn many things from Sebastian Vettel, not only on track but also about Formula 1 – since I was able to ask him a couple of questions. It was really nice to hear from him since he’s a four-time World Champion.

“It doesn’t get better than this. It’s a great event, the media, the friends that we got to bring and that watched us. It was really enjoyable.”

The Race4Women podium, with Lina Hammadeh on the top step (Image credit: V5 Projects/Orel Communications)

There are also some spectacular prizes to enjoy – the top three will all get a tour of the F1 Paddock at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while Hammadeh will also get to test a Ferrari Challenge car.

“Who wouldn’t be!” she understandably responds when I ask how much she’s looking forward to them. But there’s also the joy of having raced to victory in front of her family – particularly her father – that shines through when speaking to her.

“I’m so happy that I got to do this in front of my father, Fadi Hammadeh, because he’s a racer as well,” she says. “He’s a champion here in the Middle East, rallying and autocross and stuff, so it was really good that he got to be here and watch me.”

‘We need to give them the stage to do it'

The message from Vettel since he retired from racing in Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season is simple and consistent – there is still a race to win. It’s a phrase captured on the banners around the karting track and encapsulates the social causes that the four-time World Champion has dedicated himself to help change for the better.

Here the focus is on grassroots motorsports in Saudi Arabia, as well as providing opportunities for female racers, as he’s keen to emphasize the good the sport can do.

The 20 racers pose with Vettel at the end of the Race4Women event (Image credit: V5 Projects/Orel Communications)

“If you have F1 in town, in your own country, then little girls and boys are following because their parents might be following and that’s where dreams are born,” he says.

“They want to become racing drivers and try it themselves, and that’s where it needs the support in a bigger picture to have more go-karting tracks and better facilities, more go-karts available for all these kids to try.

“There’s a lot of things you get in one go. Obviously, you increase that courage to have a feeling behind a go-kart and to be in control, it’s a way to express yourself and I think it’s a way that helps you become more courageous when it comes to other topics. You’re taking the kids off the street, you’re helping them get a feel for a go-kart and, later on, for a car, so they’ll be more safe and more responsible on the roads as well.

“There’s a lot of things that click and will go hand in hand. So, there’s a lot of reasons why we’re here and why we’re putting this all together, but to be honest it’s a true inspiration to get in touch with these girls and hear about their lives.

"For sure it’s different for kids in Germany and many countries around the globe but the dreams are very much alike. That’s what it’s about, to make sure everyone’s got the same chances and – in particular women – that they are heard, because they can do the same and that’s why it’s important.

“F1 is opening up and you see more women in the paddock. You see women on the pit wall, you see them in the garage, and they are taking action, taking part – they’re not just guests. They’re part of the team and the infrastructure. That all enlarges the little girls’ vision when they start dreaming that they are able to do that as well.”

If you have F1 in town, in your own country, then little girls and boys are following because their parents might be following and that’s where dreams are born.
Sebastian Vettel

So, what’s next in this particular mission for Vettel?

“Hopefully we’ll see that there’s more support and a real push when it comes to grassroots – and kids, whether it’s boys or girls – to receive more support or funding, to grow the infrastructure,” he explains. “So that would be great to see and why not carry on spreading the message, which is really why we’re here.

“We’re creating awareness, the kids are there, the young women are there, they’re very courageous, and the dreams are there so we need to give them the stage to do it.”