It started with a film.
Saud Al Saud describes himself as a passionate guy who is curious about everything in life. The thing he is most curious about now, racing, came from a film he watched as a boy, Ford v Ferrari. In his words, he fell in love with racing life.
Karting came next, and he was good at it. Good enough to want more from the sport, and good enough to ask himself a question he still repeats today: if I'm good at something, why not be the best?
A Kid With No Interests
Before racing, Saud says, he was a lazy kid with few aspirations and no real goals. Motorsport was the spark. It gave him something he was good at, something he could be the best at, and something he actually enjoyed.
What it also gave him was discipline. Training, diet, focus, taking things seriously. He credits the sport with making him sharper as a person, in his businesses and in every job he has worked since.
His first Formula 4 season came in 2021, and he calls it a learning curve he is still grateful for. The competition was at a level he had never seen in Saudi Arabia, and it humbled him.
Second on the Grid, Last After Lap One
The race he cannot forget started from one of the best qualifying positions of his life. He was second overall. On the first lap he was hit, and he dropped to dead last.
What he remembers is how he handled it. If he had driven angry, he says, he would have driven worse. Instead he told himself to enjoy the race and see how many cars he could pass. He overtook 14 or 15 of them and finished third.
Winning has its own risk, and he has seen that too.
Beat everyone today, believe you are the best, and someone will humble you at the next round. The drivers you beat will learn from their mistakes and beat you tomorrow. For Saud, the champion's mentality is to feel good about a win and work just as hard the next morning.
The 20 to 30 Percent
Compared with a sport like football, where raw talent can carry a player, motorsport gives talent a smaller share. Saud puts it at 20 to 30 percent of what a driver needs. Talent brings the courage to overtake. The rest is seat time, learning to work with the mechanic so the car suits you, being sharp for every lap, and the budget that makes all of that seat time possible.
It is also a sport where talent does not show immediately. His advice to anyone starting out is not to judge themselves in the first year. Learn, get the experience, and decide later. And one more thing, said twice for emphasis: if you're scared, don't do this.
Le Mans, and Home
His long-term dream is Le Mans, and racing at Qiddiya when the circuit opens.
When he was younger, he says, motorsport was nothing in Saudi Arabia. Now the Kingdom hosts Formula 1, Formula E and Dakar, with Qiddiya on the way, and the number of Saudi racing drivers has grown with it. He sees developing talent as part of Vision 2030, and the sport's growth as something every Saudi driver takes pride in.
The film that started it all was about two men chasing a win at Le Mans. Saud is still chasing his.
