Enaam Ahmed
- ️Fri Feb 04 2000
Enaam Ahmed (Urdu: انعام احمد; born 4 February 2000) is a Pakistani and British racing driver.[3][4] He most recently competed in the 2023 Indy NXT driving for Cape Motorsports.[5] Ahmed previously competed in the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 Championship driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing and previously drove for RP Motorsport in the 2021 season.[6]
In 2014 won the Karting World Championship[7]
In 2015, Ahmed made his debut in MSA Formula for Arden where he finished eighth overall, winning one race and the Rookie Cup in his first year racing cars. He also made occasional appearances in the SMP F4 Championship where he enjoyed even more success, picking up five wins and two poles.
For 2016, it was announced that Ahmed would be driving for Douglas Motorsport[8] in the British Formula Three Championship. He finished fifth overall.
Ahmed began 2017 taking part in the Toyota Racing Series with Giles Motorsport alongside Red Bull Juniors Luis Leeds and Richard Verschoor.[9]
In January 2017, it was announced Ahmed would switch to Carlin for a second season of British F3.[10] Ahmed made BRDC British Formula 3 Championship history by taking all three wins in the opening round of the season at Oulton Park. He also recorded three fastest laps across the three races to leave the weekend as championship leader with a perfect score of 95 points.
He went on to make it four wins from four races by taking victory in the opening race at Rockingham Speedway, before a further two wins at the next round at Snetterton Circuit saw Ahmed surpass the total number of wins achieved by a driver throughout the entirety of the 2016 campaign (5). Although Ahmed finished off the top step of the podium for the first time during a weekend in 2017 at Silverstone, two podium finishes allowed Ahmed to extend his lead in the championship standings.
Ahmed claimed his first pole of the 2017 season in a qualifying session at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, before going on to record his seventh and eighth wins of the season. A further second place finish stretched the Carlin driver's lead at the top of the drivers' standings to 82 points over nearest rival Toby Sowery.
At the next round at Brands Hatch, Enaam went on to take his second successive pole position, before sealing a lights-to-flag victory in the opening race. He recovered from eighth to finish on the podium in third place in the reverse grid race and recorded another lights-to-flag win – his 10th of the season – in the final race of the weekend.
Ahmed sealed the 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship title at the penultimate round of the season at Snetterton, having claimed a further two victories to take his tally up to 12 – matching triple F1 world champion Ayrton Senna's total of wins from his own title-winning campaign in 1983. As a result, the Carlin driver became the series' youngest-ever champion at just 17 years old.
At the season finale at Donington Park, Ahmed won the 24th and final race of the season – his 13th victory of the campaign – to surpass the total number of wins Ayrton Senna achieved in 1983 (12). He ended the year on 654 points, 164 clear of his nearest rival.
In December 2017, it was confirmed Ahmed would contest the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Silverstone-based Hitech GP, where he claimed two wins to finish ninth in the championship.
The following year, Ahmed moved to Japan to contest the Japanese Formula 3 championship with ThreeBond Racing but switched to B-MAX Racing with Motopark prior to the start of the season.[11][12] There he claimed two wins at Fuji and Sugo to finish third in the championship behind teammate Sacha Fenestraz and TOM'S driver Ritomo Miyata.
Later that year, Ahmed partook in the FIA Formula 3 post-season test with Prema Powerteam.[13] He ended up signing for Carlin Buzz Racing to partner Clément Novalak and Cameron Das in the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship. On 30 July, after 6 races, Carlin announced that Ahmed and his sponsors had departed from the team, being replaced by Ben Barnicoat.
On 2 April 2021 Ahmed announced that he would move to the United States to compete in the Indy Pro 2000 championship with RP Motorsport.[14] It was initially announced as a part-time deal as it was unsure whether or not Ahmed would contest the full season due to sponsorship issues. Due to a lack of budget, Ahmed was no longer able to compete in the following races of the championship.[15] However, it was announced on 29 September that Ahmed would compete in the final two races of the 2021 season with Juncos Hollinger Racing, replacing Manuel Sulaimán.[6]
On 11 February 2022 Ahmed signed to compete in the full 2022 Indy Pro 2000 Championship season with Juncos Hollinger Racing.[16]
Ahmed moved up to the Indy NXT for 2023, teaming up with Cape Motorsports. He is partnered with Jagger Jones.[5]
† As Ahmed was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
* Season still in progress.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (Races with L indicate a race lap led) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)
- ^ Tahir, Nabil (21 August 2022). "The fearless formula racer". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ "Performance packed Pakistani driver grabs top racing podium". Geo News. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ "British Pakistani rising motorsport star meets the High Commissioner". High Commission of Pakistan, London. 9 August 2017. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- ^ "'It's the most undiverse sport in the world.' Meet Enaam Ahmed, the up-and-coming Muslim driver who broke Ayrton Senna's F3 record". The Times. 22 June 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
- ^ a b Wood, Ida (27 February 2023). "Enaam Ahmed secures move up to Indy Nxt with Cape Motorsports". Formula Scout. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ a b Brittle, Cian (29 September 2021). "Ahmed handed Indy Pro 2000 lifeline at Juncos for season finale". Formula Scout. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
- ^ "Enaam Ahmed: The karting world champion tipped to become the next Lewis Hamilton". Sky Sports. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
- ^ "BRDC F4 News – DOUGLAS MOTORSPORT SIGNS ENAAM AHMED". British Formula Three Championship. 2 March 2016. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
- ^ "Trio of Kiwis to battle strong international line-up in TRS". 19 December 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ "Ahmed back with Carlin for British F3 2017 assault". 11 January 2017. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
- ^ Wood, Elliot (1 March 2019). "Enaam Ahmed swaps Europe for Japanese F3 with ThreeBond". FormulaScout. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
- ^ Simmons, Marcus (29 March 2019). "Enaam Ahmed switches to Motopark in Japanese F3 reshuffle". Autosport. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
- ^ Benyon, Jack (18 October 2019). "F3 champion Prema names post-season test line-up". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
- ^ Wood, Ida (2 April 2021). "RP Motorsport signs Enaam Ahmed for Indy Pro 2000". Formula Scout. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
- ^ Wood, Ida (31 May 2021). "The driver Meyer Shank Racing is lining up to be its next Indy 500 victor". Formula Scout. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
- ^ Allen, Peter (11 February 2022). "Enaam Ahmed gets Juncos Indy Pro 2000 drive for 2022". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- Official website
- Enaam Ahmed career summary at DriverDB.com