Emirati sisters Hamda and Amna Al Qubaisi are back together for the upcoming Formula Regional Asian Championship, in a Abu Dhabi Racing and Prema Powerteam joint effort.
The Al Qubaisi sisters, Amna (21) and Hamda (19), announced that they will take part in the upcoming Formula Regional Asian Championship - previously known as F3 Asia - in a Prema Powerteam and Abu Dhabi Racing joint effort. For Amna, it marks her return to racing after one year, as she had made her F3 debut in 2021. The step to Formula Regional is on the other hand Hamda's racing debut in F3 machinery, having spent the last two full seasons in Italian F4. The two sisters will race alongside their father Khaled, an experienced GT racer with multiple Le Mans 24H starts under his belt and a two-time Dubai 24H winner. Amna, a prominent figure in UAE sports, had a strong start of her career in karting on home soil before moving to Europe to race in Italian Formula 4. Across 2018 and 2019, Amna made good progress and recorded a 12th place as her best result, in one of the most competitive and crowded feeder series in the world. In December 2019, Amna made global headlines when she took victory in the Trophy Round of the F4 UAE championship, a support race of the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In doing so, she became the first Arab woman to win a single seater race, and the first woman to step on the podium in a F1 weekend. The pandemic forced her to a halt in 2020, but she came back in the winter of 2021 with the F3 Asia campaign. Despite having been away from the racetrack for over a year, Amna performed well and quickly adapted to the heavier and more physical Tatuus T318 car, and was close to score her first points on a couple of occasions. Younger sister Hamda followed in her sister's footsteps and made her debut in Italian Formula 4 with two appearances in 2019, at Red Bull Ring and Monza. She immediately showed great potential and joined the grid full time in 2020. In her rookie season, Hamda scored points at Red Bull Ring and Monza, in a grid of over 30 cars. In the UAE-based F4 championship, Hamda took her first victory and established herself as one of the leading female racing drivers worldwide. With 16 podiums and 6 wins over two seasons on home soil, she became the most successful female in F4 series worldwide. Hamda returned to Italian F4 in 2021 with Prema Powerteam and proved to belong to the point scoring positions on a consistent level. She kept writing history when she finished on the overall podium in Misano, becoming the first woman to do so in the series. The move to F3 is thus a natural evolution in her career. "We are delighted to continue our collaboration with Abu Dhabi Racing and the Al Qubaisi family", said Rene Rosin, Prema Powerteam Team principal. "We worked with Khaled, Amna, and Hamda several times during the years, and it will be special to field them all together this time." "We are also strong supporters of the Formula Regional Asian Championship. Our experience last year was extremely positive, so we are looking forward to another highly-competitive season." The team stormed to victory in both the drivers and teams' championships in 2021. At the first round, Amna and Hamda will share the track for the third time in single seaters, following two rounds in Italian F4 and the Trophy Round in Abu Dhabi in 2019. The season starts at YAS Marina, Abu Dhabi, on 22-23 January, supporting the 6H of Abu Dhabi. One week later, teams will move to Dubai Autodrome, where they will contest three triple-header rounds over three weeks. The 5-event season ends at YAS Marina on 19-20 February.
