Saudi Arabia announced this week that it will host the Formula 1 Grand Prix in its Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah in Nov. 2021. The announcement was made on the Jeddah waterfront and the Minister of Sport Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki Al-Faisal said that the race would increase the number of tourists to the Kingdom.

Announcing the race, Prince Abdul Aziz said “Welcome to Formula 1 and welcome to the champions.” He added that the race would help the Kingdom to become a centre for such international sporting events.

“We realize the extent to which the people of Saudi Arabia are keen to always be at the center of the most important sporting and international events, especially that this is the first opportunity to follow Formula 1 races on Saudi land,” the minister said.

“Formula 1 races will be a great opportunity in the future to further promote positive developments in society, provide more options to enrich the life of our community and encourage it to test new experiences,” Prince Abdul Aziz added.

The race will be held in the Kingdom as part of a 15-year partnership between the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and Formula 1. The Jeddah Corniche will be the start and end point of the race, and a variety of recreational and cultural activities will be held to enhance the experience of spectators.

The chairman of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation Prince Khalid bin Sultan al-Faisal said that the Kingdom is qualified to host events like the Formula 1 race.

He added that Saudi Arabia has “learned a lot from hosting the Dakar Rally, the electric Formula E series,” and other sporting events during the last two years. The CEO and executive chairman of the Formula 1 Group Chase Carey welcomed the announcement.

“Saudi Arabia is growing tremendously to become a major center for sport in the world, and this is evident through the many international events it had held over the past years, and now it will host one of the Formula 1 tours,” Carey said.

The Kingdom “is a very important region for us, especially since its people includes about 70 percent of young people under the age of thirty years, and that is why we are excited to communicate and interact with them and enhance their great passion for Formula 1,” the CEO added.

The Saudi Grand Prix appears on the provisional F1 calendar for 2021 that has been distributed to race teams. It is expected to be the penultimate race of the 2021 season, which will conclude with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit.

Jeddah will host the Saudi race while a new purpose-built track at Qiddiyah is completed, which is expected to be in 2023.