RIYADH: Hamda Al-Qubaisi will enter the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine under the PREMA banner.

The Emirati racer, who secured her maiden overall podium finish in the Italian Formula 4 Championship last year, the first and only female to achieve that result, will stay with PREMA Racing as she makes the switch to the next step of her professional career.

She said: “I’m very excited to be working with PREMA Racing for my first season in FRECA. I’m looking forward to building on what I learned in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and continuing to progress and improve.”

Al-Qubaisi, 19, is considered the UAE’s most outstanding driver, and one of the world’s most competitive female racers, coming from a racing family that includes her father Khaled and sister Amna.

Having started in go-kart, she moved on to single-seaters in 2019 and went on to capture podium finishes in 2020 and 2021. In addition, she had two successful campaigns in the F4 UAE Championship, with six wins (the most by any female in F4 worldwide) and multiple poles to her name in addition to two overall fourth-place finishes in the series.

The 2022 season has already seen her make the step to a more competitive class as she took part in the Formula Regional Asian Championship to prepare for the upcoming challenges.

Rene Rosin, team principal of PREMA Racing, said: “We are proud to see Hamda make such a major step in a driver’s career. Moving up from Formula 4 brings a lot of new challenges but we know her ability and level of commitment.

“She started with the right foot in the Asian Formula Regional Championship, and we are looking forward to seeing that potential translate to FRECA as well. We are happy to continue working with her in what I think is a very interesting four-driver line-up.”