Al Faisal racing team is a Saudi team that has been joining international and national racing events since 2006. What’s Up got the opportunity to ride on the fast lane with two of its members, both his highness prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Faisal, and his highness prince Abdullaziz bin Turki Al Faisal to get a firsthand scope on how such athletes live their lives and how they see the future of motor racing in Saudi Arabia.

What’s Up: So how did the whole concept of the team come about?

Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Faisal: Before creating the team in 2006, each one of us used to race individually, and then I thought why not collect all those great Saudi racers into one team, joining our forces and bringing proper attention to what Saudi Arabia has to offer.

WU: So what type of vehicles do you focus on?

Prince Abdullaziz bin Turki Al Faisal: Well it all depends on which type of race we are getting involved in, and this is why we made Al Faisal team, to gather racers who can specialize in one or two types of auto races.

Prince Khaled: After creating the team, we got a better chance in competing in more events, like autocross races here in Jeddah and Riyadh, we joined rally races in the Middle East, we raced in Bahrain’s formula BMW races, among many other races all around the world.

WU: How can someone know if he is cut to become a racer?

Prince Abdullaziz: Carting is the preliminary level of all types of auto racing, since you get to truly experience wheel to wheel racing, where you get about 40 to 50 young cart racers competing against each other, and it is also from there where you can spot talented drivers.

WU: How would someone take it beyond carting, to the next level?

Prince Abdullaziz: The young racer can either move on to formula Ford, or formula BMW, these are called single-seater, and it is there where you start to get the formula sensation.

Prince Khaled: Think of a ball, you get the basic round ball but you can customize it to be used with soccer, volleyball, basketball, or even tennis. It all depends on the round sphere’s size and physics. Car racing depends on engines and wheels, now it would depend on whether it is circuit, rally, formula, or drag. Each has its own strategy, engines, and car type.

WU: Since we live in this region, most people brag about having what it takes to drive through desert land, and sand dunes. Is that all it takes to be a rally driver?

Prince Khaled: You need to start with talent, then you have to learn how to control that talent and direct it properly. You see driving a car on a track is totally different than in an open terrain where you are free to do whatever you need to keep on moving. Driving on a racing track isn’t the same as driving on the streets.

Prince Abdullaziz: The first thing they teach you on a racing track is what is called the racing line; that is the fastest line around the track. So if you move away from that line you get slower then the other racers and loose time. Last week I joined the Porsche support race F1 and qualified last, I was 2.9 seconds slower then the leader. On that race we were 14 drivers. So you get 14 cars flashing through the finish line within 2.9 seconds, that’s how intense this sport is.

Prince Khaled: Every driver has a different line, and a different technic or way of driving, if a line works great for Abdullaziz, I won’t be doing great on it, and vise versa. So a driver would pick a line that is better for him, and his skills.

WU: Does your instructor tell you about it before a race?

Prince Abdullaziz: Wish it was that easy, you see you have to watch videos about previous events that took place on that circuit, you have to get the plans of the track and start studying it, and in the end you have to test it yourself with a car to see how you can go about it and find that short line that can give you precious milliseconds.

Prince Khaled: Another important part is learning breaking points. On the streets you’re psychologically used to certain points where you break to take turns, on a race it is another world all together, street physics don’t apply there. A racing car is built to go late on breaking and to take corner better then any car on the street. Keep in mind that every type of racing has its own set of rules, so a street car won’t have the same maneuvers of a formula BMW.

WU: So how would any one adapt from one type of race to the other?

Prince Abdullaziz: This is the part where you need talents, a talented driver would push all the boundaries and become faster then the others in a shorter period of time.

Many people get in the race thinking they know what they are doing, then they crash, and that is when a brick wall of reality hits them hard and they come to the full understanding of what is going on around them.

Prince Khaled: I personally think that the best way is to increase your speed gradually, some drivers go so fast at the beginning of their career, without understanding their full level of control skills, and that is a very important part of the race.

WU: Saudi Arabia has always been proud of big Saudi racers like BaKhashab, and Mamdooh Khayat, but since we don’t have too many Saudi racers, isn’t it hard to get proper training?

Prince Abdullaziz: In modern day racing cars, we have what is called data-log, which records everything you do in the car like breaking, speed, throttle, steering, plus everything else that is happening around you in the car, think of it as a car’s black-box.

After going through a full lap, you return to check on all the readings coming out of that data-log on the computer, so you get to see everything you did, you get to see all your mistakes, where you had been slow, or even fast.

That way you get to improve yourself to be better over time, till you reach a point where you’re competing for tenth of a second on every corner, and that requires a lot of practice.

Prince Khaled: I think the reason we didn’t have more drivers showing up in the past is very simple, you need the whole culture of racing to develop properly, you need local low-budget races, where you get a chance to find and discover good talented drivers, in the past we never had such a thing. Another part was approaching sponsors, no one really knew how it worked and how to attract them. All these factors hindered Saudi racers from shining. In 2003 Abdullah BaKhashab started to organize auto-crosses, and this is how things really started to move and evolve to have our own rally races.

Prince Abdullaziz: That was the first step, the second was when Bahrain opened its F1 International Circuit, that step did help put the whole region on the world map, and spread the awareness beyond dedicated fans to everyone living in the region.

WU: Do you think that one day we will see a formula one racing circuit arena here in Saudi Arabia?

Prince Abdullaziz: From a financial point of view, Saudi Arabia can do it easily, but it is a matter of having the racing culture, and building the whole environment that can host and support it.

From my perspective I think we are on the right path, since we didn’t start with a big arena then try all we can to weave it into the culture, we are building it from the ground up, getting people interested in the sport, creating groups, hunting for talented drivers, and in the end we will have the racing circuit we all dream about, only then will it be a natural transition.

Prince Khaled: You see you have to build the culture first, and in the end you will naturally reach formula one. Then you will find drivers available, you can find potential teams, most importantly, you will find fans who love the sport. I think that the Saudi youth are very talented, they need someone to direct them on the right path.

WU: Does driving racing cars affect your normal street driving? I have always wondered about that when I see how fast F1 racers drive.

Prince Abdullaziz: It made me go slower on the street.

WU: Slower!

Prince Abdullaziz: Yeah, you see you don’t really hit high-speeds a lot on the track you average on 270 km/h, but what really matters is the carrying speeds, which you take the corners with, and that should be fast depending on the car and downforce, and of course the drivers ability to handle G-force.

Let me give you an example, on the race track in Riyadh, I drove an enzo which had 660hp, the time I got on it was 1.30, after that I tested a radical  ̵ a racing GT car with 250hp  ̵ on that I scored 1.15, that’s 15 seconds faster then the enzo ferrari. A car race isn’t about gaining distance, it is about gaining time.

WU: I would really love to take a look at how you see things through your eyes when you’re in the race, it seems like everything is in a hyper state of slow motion.

Prince Abdullaziz: You have to be in the zone.

Prince Khaled: Plus you have to think about many things at the same time, think of how you would feel at the first corner of the race, where along with another 19 cars who want to take that same corner at once. You have to be super sharp and very alert to everything. That said you must be calm and relaxed to handle the situation and keep everything under full control.

WU: Is there something special you eat before any race?

Prince Khaled: It really depends on the type of race, but generally you have to be an athlete, you need a fit body, you need to focus on water, since you lose a lot during a race. Plus you need to carb-load before any race, so a lot of carbohydrates.

Prince Abdullaziz: In the BMW race, they would rig you up with a heart monitor to check on how and when your heart is reacting to the race, so that you can monitor everything against your data log, to train yourself on being calm, and keeping things under control.

WU: Let’s focus on Al Faisal racing team, what was the idea behind creating it?

Prince Khaled: I started racing back in 2002, and by 2006 I thought that I should take things to the next level and create a team, and luckily I found the guys who loved cars and racing to become our team members, while focusing each one of us on a certain type of motor sport so that Al Faisal Auto team can join most of the auto races out there.

WU: Who are the team members and what is their focus?

Prince Khaled: We have Majed Al Ghamdi who is into autocross and rally, there’s Said Al Moori who is in autocross, Ahmed Al Tayib is into drag racing, Prince Abdullaziz is into track racing, I am personally into track, rally, and autocross. And our newest member is Prince Khaled bin Al Waleed, he has recently joined the team.

In 2007 and 2008 we got sponsored by Mobily telecom, since getting sponsors was a great step for the team as an approval of the support of the public, it also shows that people really love this sport here in Saudi Arabia.

We have a huge plan for the future of the team, we got all the gears set in place, and it is a matter of getting things in motion really soon.

WU: Will we see Al Faisal F1 team any time soon?

Prince Abdullaziz: If you would fork-off 300 million Euros, you might (laughs). But seriously you might in the future.

Prince Khaled: Right now we are preparing for the 2010 season, so far in January this year we did the Dubai endurance race, we did the Lamborghini Superleggera championship. Prince Abdullaziz did the Porsche super cup, while I got involved in the Chevrolet Super cup as well as the Mini cup challenge, we did some training in Germany for some up coming races, so I can fairly say we are very active and preparing for more events to take part in the future.

WU: That sounds like a busy schedule?

Prince Abdullaziz: The Porsche race by itself has about 16 races in 8 weekends scattered all over the region, and that is why we take this as a profession, this is our day jobs.

Prince Khaled: Now that the whole team are designated professional drivers, our schedule is full for the next two seasons at least. Right now we did some training at the Nürburgring* ring in Germany to get ready to compete against European drivers in endurance races. As a team our objective is to be Saudi Arabia’s ambassadors on the racing arena to make every Saudi proud, we would like to spread the awareness about the sport, and to get more people to enjoy it.

*Nürburgring Ring: Is simply known as “The Ring” by enthusiasts, it’s a 28.265 kilometers racing track located in in Nürburg, Germany. The ring is a little over 5 times bigger then Bahrain’s International Circuit. Car companies test their vehicles there before even producing them for the market.