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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
familiarization day.
But that was private, whereas Sunday 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."
DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE
"I never even imagined it in my dreams. So the opportunity was
amazing," she said of her first outing. "That day I thought it
was the only lifetime experience. And they invited me again.
"It's a great honor for me to share with them the celebration
and passion for Renault.
"I believe the beauty of this story is that everything is
possible. Even if you dream the impossible you can still achieve
it," she said.
Al-Hamad is already the first female member of the Saudi Arabian
Motorsport Federation and on the Women in Motorsport Commission
set up by Formula One's governing body, the International
Automobile Federation (FIA).
She is also the first woman to import a Ferrari into Saudi
Arabia, and has taken her 458 Spider to racetracks around the
world to take part in track days, workshops and professional
racing courses.
Asked whether there would now be female Saudi racing drivers,
she replied: "For sure, definitely. And this is going to be my
mission in Saudi.
"Thanks to Renault, by this gesture I can be hopefully an
ambassador to push it more in Saudi.
"The Women in Motorsport Commission is encouraging the
participation in all sectors of motorsport, including racers,
engineers, mechanics and marshals," she said, adding that she
could also see Saudi women working in F1.
"The beautiful thing is that motorsport is not a sport that is
divided. So women are able to compete equally with everyone. We
just have to dream to have more women in all job sectors of
motorsport."
Michele Mouton, a former rally driver and president of the FIA's
commission, said in a statement she hoped Al-Hamad's example
would help pave the way for more Saudi women to get involved.
Women in Saudi Arabia were able to take to the roads at
midnight, ending the world's last ban on female drivers, long
seen as an emblem of women's repression in the deeply
conservative Muslim kingdom.
The lifting, ordered last September by King Salman, is part of
sweeping reforms pushed by his powerful young son Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, in a bid to transform the economy of the
world's top oil exporter and open up its cloistered society.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Amlan Chakraborty and Ian
Chadband)
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