Reema Juffali has secured the first wild-card entry in this year’s F1 Academy series for the season-opener in Saudi Arabia, an announcement on Monday confirmed.
The all-female single-seater championship announced on February 5 that wild card entries for select rounds will be selected from the host nation to compete with the PREMA team.
Juffali, Saudi Arabia’s first-ever female racing driver has been selected to race when F1 Academy visits her home nation on March 07 – 09.
Her racing career began in 2018, contesting the TRD 86 Cup and MRF Challenge.
A year later, Juffali headed to the United Kingdom to compete in the British Formula 4 Championship, scoring multiple points finishes across two seasons of competition.
In 2021, Juffali continued her British single-seater journey with further points finishes in the GB3 Championship.
A switch to sportscars and endurance racing came in 2022 and with it, the foundation of her own team, as Juffali brought Theeba Motorsport into existence.
Her 2022 record saw her achieve a class podium in the Dubai 24 Hours, along with a debut win in the International GT Open pro-am class in Estoril, making her the first Saudi Arabian woman to win an international moto race.
A switch to the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup last year saw Juffali make more history, becoming the first female and first Saudi Arabian driver to claim a pole position.
Juffali will continue competing in GT World Challenge Europe alongside her wild card debut in F1 Academy.
“It is an honour and a privilege to be representing my country, especially in my hometown,” said Juffali (via F1 Academy).
“The day F1 arrived in Jeddah was the clash of both my worlds and now I am actually going to be participating!
“I’m really looking forward to it and happy to share the experience with my friends and family who are based here.
“As the saying goes: ‘if you can’t see it, you won’t believe it’.
“So, hopefully Saudi fans can see that there is a Saudi racing driver out there and it will get them to thinking that ‘this is something I can do!’
“It is for this reason I have decided to take this challenge on. This is just the beginning!”
