Amna Al Qubaisi on Racing, Ambition and Owning Your Finish with Wardah Stay Lock Lip Matte

Meet racing driver Amna Al Qubaisi as she discusses her TIME100 recognition, career in motorsport and what it means to be a Women of Speed with Wardah.

This year has brought another significant chapter. Al Qubaisi was named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in Sports list, an acknowledgement that she says she never expected to receive. Her reaction was to cry when she saw her name on the list, a moment of disbelief for someone who had simply been focused on racing and pursuing the goals she had set for herself. “I just did what I love and automatically, along the way, I was making history without even knowing,” she says.

That idea of moving forward with purpose is also at the heart of Wardah’s Staylock campaign, which centres on women who show up with intention and confidence, while its “Own Your Finish” message speaks to leaving your mark in your own way. For Al Qubaisi, the sentiment takes on a more personal meaning, as she sees the finish as part of a much longer journey where reaching one goal simply creates space for the next.

“I feel like there is always something beyond your goal,” she says. “There is no ending to once you reach a goal, that’s it. It’s always like there’s always something beyond your goal.”

It is a philosophy that seems to have followed her throughout her career, particularly as Al Qubaisi has never been particularly interested in keeping her ambitions within what other people consider realistic. From an early age, she knew she wanted to race, and eventually set her sights on Formula 1, a goal she says was met with comments that she was being too ambitious or overly optimistic and should consider toning things down. Her response was to continue pursuing the ambition she had set for herself, regardless of whether the people around her could see the same possibility.

“Thankfully, I never listened to them,” she says.

That refusal to reduce her ambitions is part of what makes her story compelling. There is no suggestion from Al Qubaisi that the road has been straightforward, or that determination alone makes a difficult career easy. Instead, she is candid about how much persistence racing has required, particularly when it comes to proving herself, dealing with setbacks and continuing to show up when things do not go according to plan.

“I don’t want to sell you a dream, but it’s not easy,” she says. “You get doubted a lot, you get pushed down a lot, you have to prove yourself a lot. And that’s the beauty of the journey.”

Her understanding of success has also shifted along the way. While the results on the track remain important, some of the moments that stay with her most have happened away from it. Al Qubaisi recalls young women approaching her after races to tell her that she inspired them to get involved in motorsport, pursue engineering or find another way into the industry, and those encounters have given her a different measure of what a career can leave behind.

“No amount of trophy would be able to top that,” she says. “I feel like I’ve made a kind of change in the sport.”

For someone who initially entered racing because she wanted to share her father’s world, it is a meaningful evolution. Her father remains the biggest influence on her career, but the relationship she has with racing has expanded far beyond that original connection. What began as a nine-year-old wanting to follow her father’s footsteps has become a career in which she is now influencing how other young women see their own possibilities.

That is something Al Qubaisi hopes to build on beyond her time behind the wheel. She believes motorsport has changed considerably since she first entered it, with more women watching and competing, although she still sees opportunities to make the pathway into the sport more accessible. When she eventually retires from racing, she says she would like to help guide young women in her region and open more doors for those who want to pursue motorsport.

For now, she remains focused on her own journey, with the same willingness to pursue the next challenge that brought her to the track in the first place. It is also why the idea of “Own Your Finish” resonates with her. For Al Qubaisi, it is not simply about where you eventually arrive, but about taking responsibility for every part of the journey that gets you there, particularly when there is plenty of outside noise telling you where you should stop.

“It’s owning your journey where no matter how much outside noise you’ve got, you just kept in your own lane, you kept going, you kept pushing,” she says.

As Al Qubaisi looks towards the next stage of her career, her ambitions remain firmly in motion. The milestones may have become bigger and the recognition more significant, but her motivation remains rooted in the same desire to keep challenging herself and see how far she can go.