Interview
Hamda Al Qubaisi ‘catching up’ as she looks to repeat 2023 Zandvoort race wins
Hamda Al Qubaisi is confident that she’s got what it takes to catch up to the leading pack in Zandvoort, as she returns to one of her strongest and favourite circuits on the calendar for Round 4.
Back in action after a two month-long summer break following her podium in Barcelona Race 2, the Red Bull Racing driver has seen the time away from racing as a valuable opportunity to reset.
“It's been such a long time that I haven't been in the car, I'm missing it quite a lot,” Al Qubaisi admitted. “I have really good memories from there last year, so I’m excited to go there and try to replicate that this year. (…) It's a well needed rest. Things are very serious in the season and you stick to a lot of training, but it's also good to have a rest.”
Although things didn’t seem to gel together in Jeddah and Miami, the Emirati racer had an upturn in performance last time out. Sitting sixth in the Standings, with 30 points separating second to seventh, Al Qubaisi has a renewed sense of optimism in what she and MP Motorsport can achieve after those early setbacks.
“The first two rounds, I wasn’t so happy with my performance, but there were a lot of things that were around and it wasn’t just, let’s say, the driver,” Al Qubaisi remarked. “That really put my confidence down, but I had a lot of factors around. We had issues sometimes with technical parts of the car in Miami as well. It’s just a lot of things that I struggled with.
“But again, then it all comes back to me and I feel like I needed to extract the most out of the car, but when you feel like things aren't going your way you struggle to put everything together. So, that's what I struggled with, I felt like I still didn't extract the most out of myself and the car because I felt like the results weren't giving me motivation or confidence.
“I feel like after Barcelona, I have a bit of a confidence boost. I got the podium, which was really good for me and good for myself to see that I can do it and the results can be there. Then going into Zandvoort, (it’s) giving me a really good mindset to be able to take that result and say to myself ‘oh, I can do it and I can do even better in Zandvoort, considering what happened there last year. It’s just all about putting everything together. I felt like we started a bit slow, but we’re catching up and we still have four more rounds to go.”
Al Qubaisi flourished on her 2023 visit to the Dutch circuit with F1 ACADEMY, sealing both pole positions and two lights-to-flag victories — all the while still recovering from a broken arm sustained ahead of the campaign.
Despite her previous success heightening her expectations towards the podium, Al Qubaisi reckoned the pressure will benefit her, but acknowledged that she’s at a slight disadvantage compared to the five drivers who benefitted from competing at Zandvoort with British F4 over the break.
“Last year, I really didn't have any expectations of myself, mostly because of the injury I had, and especially because Zandvoort is such a physical track,” she said. “I actually had zero expectations there. I thought if I did the top five, that would be really good, but I managed to win both races. So, it was good for me to see that even with my arm not performing so well, I was still able to get the win.
“I just have to be relaxed. I have to go into the weekend like every other weekend that I did. Especially this year as well, I did expect a lot from myself, but then I really took things as they came and I made sure to finish every race, which was really good for me. I collected points in every race, so no DNFs. It’s also important to do that to be consistent.”
Al Qubaisi added: “My family members know that I did well there last year, so they’re like ‘you just need to do the same this year’, so I do have a bit of pressure. I feel like it’s good pressure and I feel I can deal with it really well. Zandvoort is a special circuit to me, I really like it, so a top three would be amazing there.
“I know that a lot of the other drivers did British F4 there, so everyone is getting quite a lot of track time. It will be more difficult than it was last year, but still head down and I think we’re going to be able to do that.”
When dealing with a physically demanding track like Zandvoort, Al Qubaisi said the onus is on the drivers to make the right compromises and that the complexity of the circuit should help, rather than hinder her.
“The track is very, very old school, very twisty, very technical” she explained. “With the banked corners, there are many different ways of taking it, so you just have to find the fastest way. It’s very difficult to get a lap completely perfect because especially in Sector 2, there are a lot of corners and they’re very fast, high-speed corners.
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“Those are the corners we need to focus on to make sure to extract the most out of the lap. It’s a lot of fast corners in Sector 2 that I feel like we can make the difference. Turn 7, for example, it’s a sixth gear corner downhill and it’s a bit scary, so the ones who are more confident with the car and how it reacts will extract the most out of it and be able to gain time there.”
She continued: “I feel like it really suits my driving style because I'm quite smooth. On such a lengthy and technical track like this, you need to be quite smooth with the car and not very aggressive with the steering. Valencia is quite old-school and technical — I was also good there. A lot of the tracks that are like that suit my driving. The ones that are very straightforward, like a normal hairpin, I don’t know why I somehow mess it up, but the ones that are technical, I get right. It's really weird how my brain works, but that’s how it is.”
As the chance of rain looms across the three days, the three sessions of wet running during the Zandvoort in-season test could prove instrumental to how she’s fares across the weekend.
“I’m so not used to those conditions and I’ve never really liked driving in those conditions,” Al Qubaisi admitted. “I think it’s only because I’m not used to it. I feel when we had the in-season test in Zandvoort, I did good steps forward. I finally enjoyed it, which is really strange to me because I never enjoyed those conditions, but I was forced to because it was a full day of rain.
“There’s no other way, I just had to drive. I feel like if I do have more chances to test in the wet, I will enjoy it more and more, learn more and be able to be good at it. (…) I feel it’s easy to make mistakes in the wet, so you still have to be cautious. If I’m cautious and try to take it step by step, slowly, I’ll be able to finish in good positions. Conditions are the same (for everyone), so I just have to make the most out of it.”
When asked what her key targets will be to work on in Zandvoort, she said: “Making sure I focus on the points that I struggled with last year. Similar corners that I felt I needed to improve, I should focus on this year. In the in-season test, I realised that it was still the same corners that I struggled with last year (that I was) still struggling with this year.
“It’s about putting it all together. We had one session in the dry in the in-season test, so I was able to try to extract the most out of what had changed from last year to this year. There were just a few corners that I still can’t seem to get quite right (…) I’m going to make sure I keep my eye on those corners and try to improve it.”