FIA open to new teams in F1; The FIA president is no longer ruling out the arrival of new teams in Formula1 and has announced the launch of an ‘expression of interest’ process for the possible arrival of a new team on the grid
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has announced that an expression of interest process will soon be launched for the possible entry of a new team into the F1 World Championship.
The process allows potential teams and owners to present the opportunity to be part of the Formula One grid in the future, with the FIA then considering the entries according to their legal requirements and their own selection criteria in relation to potential Formula One entries.
FIA announcement
“I have asked my team at the FIA to consider launching an expression of interest process for potential new teams for the FIA F1 World Championship,” the FIA president announced on his Twitter account on Monday evening.
It is already known that the Andretti clan has officially applied to the FIA to form an eleventh team on the grid from 2024. If Andretti’s application is successful, it would bring the number of cars on the grid to 22 in 2024, something that has not happened since 2016 in Formula One.
Andretti’s presence on the grid would then see two US-based teams along with Haas, which joined the Formula 1 championship in 2016.
Recently, German manufacturer Audi announced its entry into Formula 1 as a factory team from the 2026 season after signing a partnership with the Sauber Group. As part of the partnership, Sauber will develop and manufacture the car at its site in Hinwil, Switzerland, and will also be responsible for the planning and execution of race operations, while the engine unit will be set up at the Audi Motorsport Competence Centre in Neuburg an der Donau, Germany.
The project of billionaire Calvin Lo should also not be forgotten. Although no concrete project has yet been put on the table, Calvin Lo is very serious in his approach and has even visited several Formula 1 Grands Prix in 2022 – including Singapore – to observe and better understand how the teams evolve in this ultra-competitive environment.
The businessman recently revealed that he is exploring the possibility of launching a new F1 team, but said that his personal involvement would be financial only and that he had no desire to become a full-time team owner.
