Saudia

**Saudia eRacing Team** was a racing team based in Saudi Arabia that operates in Formula International and serves as the feeder team of Aramco. A project initiated by Saudi Arabian king Mohamed bin Salman which had started racing in lower tiers, Saudia made their debut in Formula International in 2030 after buying out the assets of the bankrupt Jaguar team and in 2031 they won their first and only double. From 2032 the team serves as Aramco's feeder team, but despite their enormous budget they have been unable as of now to replicate their initial success and have been as of now in the midfield. Things went even more sour in 2036 as the team finished last in the team's championship and more recently there has been criticism over the team's questionable driver signings. In the end of the 2039 season, Aramco, the parent company of Saudia, decided to disband the team and sell their assets, with Italian privateers AMF taking over the assets.

## Origins

Saudi Arabian king Mohamed bin Salman is an avid motorsport enthusiasm and created the Saudia project somewhere in the 2020s as a means of promoting motorsport in Saudi Arabia. The team started in junior formulae and eventually started gathering enough experience to prepare for the next step which was Formula International. In 2030, Jaguar decided to shut down their racing team and sell it to the highest bidder, where Saudia won the bid by a landslide thanks to their enormous budget and bought the entry slot. The team adopted the name Saudia eRacing team to mark their Formula International debut.

## 2030: A learning year

For their debut campaign, the team signed Miguel Angel Larrazabal Rojas, known in South America as an exciting talent, and Michael Konig from Harvard. The team, much like every newcomer, had to spend a learning year and was mostly in the lower midfield. Larrazabal, who had missed out several races due to an injury, scored the team's first top 5 finish just after he returned to racing and overall had a very good debut season. Konig on the other hand, who ran the full season, struggled for points and only scord 7 compared to Larrazabal's 12. Test driver Alberto Matadores filled for Larrazabal during his time out of racing, failing to score points.

## 2031-2034: Title win and in the front

For their second season, Larrazabal was retained and Zouzou Randrianambinina was signed to replace the departing Konig. The team, with their massive budget, had the quickest car of the grid and stormed the FI paddock by winning 8 out of 16 races and the double on just their second season in a similar way Racing Point did. Larrazabal won the driver's title, the first out of his 3 in total and the promising Randrianambinina finished 2nd and was rookie of the year. The duo was kept for 2032, but this time they were not the quickest on the grid but still remained in the front, with Larrazabal finishing 6th and Randrianambinina 7th.

In 2033, both drivers left the team, with Larrazabal being drafted by Mercedes and Randrianambinina being promoted to Aramco, which debuted in FE the previous year. 2032 FI champion Luca Amaral was signed and test driver Reggie Middlesaxe was signed. The team was stuck in the upper midfield for this season, with Middlesaxe finishing 10th and Amaral, who turned out to be disappointing, in 11th. 2034 was a better season, with Amaral finishing 6th and Middlesaxe 10th.

## 2035-2039: Decline and sale

In 2035, Middlesaxe left and Brazilian wonderkid Joao Paulo Kitayama moved to the team. The team struggled even more than 2033 with Kitayama finishing 12th and Amaral in 17th, resulting in the latter's departure from the team in the end of the year. In 2036, Amaral was replaced by Abelone Ulf, who came on a free transfer from Shadow. 2036 was a new low for the team as despite having the fourth best car on raw pace, they struggled for points and consistency and ended up having the worst season of all time for them, finishing last in the standings for the first time in their history. In what was a very competitive grid, Ulf scored only 26 points and Kitayama, who was focusing more on his upcoming move to Shadow, scored 12.

2037 saw the team improve somewhat, with new signing Casey King finishing 13th on his first season with the team, but Ulf, once tipped to become the first female champion, struggled with only 13 points. Ulf came also under severe criticism from the paddock as the FIA driver wage bill revealed she was the highest earner of the FI grid with a contract that gave her 1,000,000 euros per year. The duo was retained for 2038, but while King impressed and scored a win for the team, Ulf, who did score a podium, struggled in the back of the grid and was even beaten by Vasiliy Tkachenko, who raced for Nero who had a much weaker car.

In 2039, Aramco loanees Rouzbeh Nourmohammadi and Nate Briggs arrived and despite glimpses of speed, with Nourmohammadi scoring what was the team's last win, Saudia finished 9th. After this year, with Middle Eastern sponsors pulling out and the team's owners losing interest. Saudia was shut down in the end of the year and put on sale. The assets were purchased by Italian privateers AMF, who had purchased the vacated Faenza base and later purchased Saudia's assets. Aramco, Saudia's parent team, would collapse just 3 races in the 2040 season and be sold within the season to a consortium from Southeast Asia, who formed later Lotus-Genesis.

## Notable Drivers

* Miguel Angel Larrazabal Rojas (2030-2032)
* Michael Konig (2030)
* Alberto Matadores (2030)
* Zouzou Randrianambinina (2031-2032)
* Luca Amaral (2033-2035)
* Reggie Middelsaxe (2033-2034)
* Joao Paulo Kitayama (2035-2036)
* Abelone Ulf (2036-2038)
* Casey King (2037-2038)
* Rouzbeh Nourmohammadi (2039)
* Nate Briggs (2039)