KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — When motorsport stalwart Sharmila Nadarajah was approached to take on a senior operational role in Saudi Arabia, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit was already delivering Formula One (F1) broadcasts to a global audience.
Beyond the television images, however, was a more complex task: transforming a temporary street circuit into a commercially viable, year-round motorsport operation.
Sharmila, a Malaysian motorsport executive who most recently led the Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM) from 2022-2023, built her career managing similar operational transitions, with senior experience at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) from 2009-2019 and the Vietnam Grand Prix Corporation from 2019-2022.
She said the next chapter of her career began after she was approached about the chief operating officer role at the Saudi Motorsport Company (SMC), which oversees race operations at the Jeddah circuit.
The company’s remit extends beyond F1. It is also involved in delivering other major international events in the Kingdom, including the Dakar Rally and Extreme E.
“Motorsports worldwide, the industry is very small and very tight, so everybody knows each other. I was a bit surprised, but I also knew the CEO here, Martin Whitaker, at the time, and he also knows (Datuk) Razlan (Razali),” she told Bernama.
Razlan is the former chief executive officer of SIC. Whitaker, a veteran British motorsport executive, previously led SMC and played a key role in launching the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Whitaker served as chief executive officer of SMC from 2021 until Mansour Al-Mokbel took over the role in May 2025.
After assuming the chief operating officer role, Sharmila said her immediate focus was on addressing the limitations of a circuit originally designed to operate around a single annual race weekend.
This led to discussions with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) to secure regulatory approval for year-round operations. The FIA is the governing body for F1 and world motorsport.
“We requested a permanent homologation, which is basically a licence for a circuit to run all year round, and the FIA agreed with some small changes to the track,” she said.
The approval allowed the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to function as a hybrid venue, retaining its street-circuit character while incorporating permanent infrastructure.
The circuit joined the Formula One World Championship calendar at the end of the 2021 season and is contracted to host the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix until 2027.
With regulatory certainty secured, Sharmila said the focus shifted to improving commercial sustainability beyond race weekends.
She said this includes opening the venue to corporate, lifestyle and entertainment activities to enhance year-round utilisation.
“When the race is running, the fan engagement is toned down for everybody to focus on the race, but once it finishes, we activate those spaces again,” she added.
Long before Saudi Arabia, Sharmila’s operational reputation was shaped at Sepang.
She joined SIC in 2009 as chief strategy officer, at a time when the venue was seeking to strengthen utilisation more than a decade after F1 first arrived in 1999.
Tasked with improving circuit usage, she played a central role in reshaping its commercial and operational model.
Under her leadership, utilisation rose from about 40 per cent to near full capacity. She later served as chief commercial officer. The turnaround later positioned SIC as a higher-frequency motorsport venue.
That experience, she said, now informed her operational approach in Saudi Arabia, including sustainability initiatives aligned with Formula One’s environmental roadmap.
“Since 2024, we started tracking our carbon emissions to be in line with Formula One to achieve net-zero carbon by 2030,” she said.
Measures include the gradual conversion of generators to electric units, as well as recycling initiatives and refillable water stations.
Beyond infrastructure and events, Sharmila said talent development remains central to long-term sustainability.
Saudi nationals now form the majority of SMC’s workforce, with about 95 per cent of employees hired locally.
“They learn very fast, but more importantly, they pivot very fast,” she said.
Drawing on her experience in Malaysia and abroad, Sharmila said motorsport ecosystems depend on engineers, officials and operations personnel as much as drivers.
Exposure to international events, she added, has enabled Malaysian professionals to build careers beyond the country’s borders.
“I see Malaysians everywhere. They are working as engineers, mechanics, logistics and operations people all over the world,” she said.
