A passion for adventure . . .
A driving ambition
Since 1997, we have been committed to encouraging Saudi Arabia’s motorsports scene, creating opportunities at all levels.
From supporting the legendary Saudi Arabian rally driver Captain Abdullah Bakhashab (WRC participant 1998-2002) in the 1997 Middle East Rally Championship, to initiating the first race in Saudi Arabia in 2001 – the Toyota Race of Champions – and then, most recently, the first all-female Rally Jameel, we’ve strived to play a significant role in developing the sport.
Over 25 years supporting
Motorsport
In 2022, we celebrated a quarter of a century supporting Motorsport in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Corniche F1 Circuit.
Our motorsport pedigree stretches back to 1997, and the very birth of rally driving as an emerging discipline in Saudi Arabia.
Advancing a national motorsports agenda with SAMF.
In 2019, we returned to motorsports in earnest with Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Saudi Arabia, becoming the main national tournaments partner for the Saudi Automobile & Motorcycle Federation (SAMF).
Established in 2006, SAMF is the Saudi national sports authority driving the development of motorsports in the country. This partnership creates an important opportunity for us to be major contributor to national motorsports projects – a key pillar for Saudi Vision 2030. It also provides young Saudi nationals with important opportunities to work and participate in this sector enhancing Saudi Arabia’s growing role in the global sports and tourism landscape.
We are proud to partner with SAMF for the largest motorsport tournaments in the country.
Heroes of today . . . and tomorrow
We’re fostering the motorsport heroes of today . . . and tomorrow. Supporting key talent who are global heralds for the sport.
These include established celebrity professionals, rising stars and up and coming grass roots novices. These talented individuals are helping to invigorate the sport in Saudi Arabia, and help the country take its place on the global circuit.
Yazeed Al Rajhi
Riyadh-born Yazeed Al Rajhi is a true motorsports hero, and an ambassador for Saudi Arabia, and since 2019, for Abdul Latif Jameel.
A successful businessman and professional rally driver, two-time FIA World Cup champion in 2021 and 2022, and two-time champion in the local Saudi Toyota Championship in 2019 and 2022, Yazeed is an icon of the sport in Saudi Arabia, and a role model for many young upcoming racers.
He has been competing in the World Rally Championship and other international rally events since 2007. established his own racing team, today, Yazeed Racing, in the same year. He later started to participate in the cross-country rallies, and his debut at the Dakar Rally was in 2015.
Dania Akeel
In 2022, Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Saudi Arabia sponsored a rising star of the Saudi Arabian motorsport scene, Dania Akeel, one of the region’s most accomplished and internationally renowned female motorsports athletes.
Dania made history when she became the first Arab woman to win the T3 category at the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas in 2021. She is also the first Saudi woman to obtain a motorcycle racing license, participating in the Ducati Cup in the UAE National Sportsbike Superseries 2019/20 season and awarded the ‘Rookie of the Year trophy’, and the first Saudi and Arab woman to rank among the top ten in the Dakar Rally (Profile).
Our ongoing support underlines our longstanding role in supporting the development of motorsports nationally and aligns with Government directives to empower women and enhance their roles and achievements, outlined in Saudi Vision 2030.
Maha Al Hamali
In 2023, our stable of outstanding up and coming Saudi motorsports drivers expanded to include Maha Al Hamali, an Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Saudi Arabia Associate where she works as General Manager, Special Projects.
In 2023, Al-Hamali competed in Rally Jameel, our all-women’s rally held in Saudi Arabia, and finished fourth overall with Taye Perry as her navigator. She is competing int the T4 category of the FIA Middle East Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
With next year’s Dakar Rally set to be the fifth in her home country of Saudi Arabia, Maha Al-Hamali will make her début in this legendary race.
Maha is sponsored by Abdul Latif Jameel Enterprises’ auto services business, AutoHub and services marketplace CarHub.
Grass Roots Racing
We’re also nurturing the development of the next generation of talented motorsports heroes from the grass roots upward with the launch of the Gazoo Racing (GR) Saudi Driving School in 2023.
This joint initiative, with the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF), is set to discover exceptional local Saudi talent for the GR Saudi Team honing their skills and passion.
Some 60 participants are invited to a five-day driving school in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where they undergo training from renowned instructors across four exhilarating disciplines: Time Attack, Hill Climb, Drift, and Autocross.
Through a series of intensive courses and practical sessions, these aspiring racers will acquire the essential skills and knowledge necessary to compete at the highest level. The final four will be selected to represent the GR Saudi Team and compete in the upcoming season of the Saudi Toyota Championship, equipped with cutting-edge Toyota GR vehicles, including the Yaris GR, GR86, and Supra.
A recent YouGov survey on consumer attitudes and behaviors revealed that motorsports are highly favored in Saudi Arabia, ranking second among sports. Our collaboration with SAMF for the GR Saudi Driving School is empowering Saudi youth as a platform to unlock their full potential in the world of motorsports and contributes to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030’s ‘Quality of Life’ program.
Rally Jameel
On September 26, 2017, King Salman Al Saud issued a statement recognizing women’s rights to drive in Saudi Arabia. By June 24, the following year women up and down the country were driving on the streets of Saudi Arabia . . . and they haven’t looked back since!
But we took it one stage further – off-road – and Rally Jameel was born.
Rally Jameel is the first off-road navigation rally for women in Saudi Arabia, and the region, created in 2017.
The event – now a mainstay in the region’s annual motorsport calendar – is an initiative of Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Saudi Arabia, organized by Bakhashab Motorsports, and sanctioned by the Saudi Automobile & Motorcycle Federation (SAMF).
It does not require speed but planning and perseverance as teams of two women use a state-of-the-art navigation equipment and a digital road book to compete on a pre-defined route across the beautiful deserts of Saudi Arabia in unmodified off-road standard production vehicles.
They need to navigate 1,600 kilometers, beginning at Al Ula, then on to Hail and finishing at Al Qassim, passing historical landmarks. En-route they must pass through a series of hidden waypoints, collecting points as they go – the team with the most accumulated points wins the event.
The Swedish team of Annie Seel and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky won the inaugural Rally Jameel, from 34 teams of 15 nationalities. Participation rose to 82 total participants from 25 countries for the second, 2023, event which was won by Ewelina Chlebowska of Poland and her co-driver Hanna Riehle of Germany from the team Sandstorm Express in their Toyota FJ Cruiser.
From Circuits to Circular
Hydrogen & Carbon Neutrality
Rookie Racing is an established Japanese motorsport team and is a sister team of Toyota GAZOO Racing, with a vision is to accelerate new technology development to make ever-better cars with motorsports as the starting point, then to revitalize the motorsports industry into something more attractive and sustainable. exemplifying Akio Toyoda’s saying, “leaving no car lover behind.”
In 2017, Japanese racing driver Tatsuya Kataoka founded a private team to train young, and gentleman drivers. The new team, called ‘T’s Concept’ participated in the year’s Super Taikyu. (スーパー耐久), Super Endurance Race) then fielding two cars for the 2018 season. One of these was later rebranded ‘Rookie Racing’ in 2019 with Daisuke Toyoda, son of Toyota’s then President Akio Toyoda, and former GT500 champion Akira Iida (飯田 章) as Rookie’s lead drivers.
In 2020, Akio Toyoda (豊田 章男) acquired the team, and while they had previously entered ‘rookie’ drivers that from the Toyota Young Driver Program, Rookie’s name was actually taken from Akio’s pet dog “Rookie”. In the team’s first year on Super GT, they ran as part of Team Cerumo.
Then, in 2021, Rookie took full charge of the team management for the 2021 Super GT season and in 2022, the team set up a new factory base near Fuji Speedway, Japan.
In 2021, they made a bold statement at the Super Taikyu participating with a GR Corolla equipped with a hydrogen-powered engine and completed the grueling 24-hour endurance race for the first time.
This impressive feat demonstrated Rookie Racing’s commitment to exploring technologies and showcasing alternatives to tackle carbon neutrality in the motorsports industry.
Sharing this vision of sustainable mobility, in 2023, Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Saudi Arabia sponsored Rookie Racing’s season as the team continues participating with its hydrogen-powertrain and carbon-neutral fuel vehicles.
It continues to showcase the significant steps forward it is making in promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly practices in motorsports – a clear message to the industry and fans alike that it is possible to race while being environmentally conscious.
Abdul Latif Jameel sponsors Saudi Arabian rally driver Abdullah Bakhashab
