Meet the new teams vying to join the F1 grid
At least four outfits have expressed interest, but there's no guarantee they'll be accepted.
Back in January, F1’s governing body publicly declared it was keen to hear from anyone who wanted to establish a new team in F1.
Three months later, reports suggest at least four prospective entries have put their hands up: Formula Equal, Andretti Cadillac, H26, and Panthera.
Today, I’m going to introduce you to each one.
Before we get into it, please keep in mind there is no guarantee these teams will be accepted. F1’s governing body, the FIA, will assess each bid thoroughly, examining technical capability, resources, funding, experience and environmental sustainability.
Also, at least one entry looks set to miss out given F1’s current regulations only allow 26 cars to compete….
Anyway, the options are below!
Formula Equal
This team would have a staff consisting of a 50-50 split between men and women - and its big funder could be Saudi Arabia.
News of Formula Equal emerged in late March thanks to Dieter Rencken of RacingNews365.com and CNN, which got an exclusive interview with Craig Pollock, the man leading this new team.
Pollock is a familiar F1 figure. He founded another team, British American Racing, in 1999.
The key feature of Formula Equal is that its staff would consist of an equal number of men and women at all levels, including drivers.
Pollock said his ambition was to build a pathway for women to get to the very top level of motorsport.
He also said funding talks were underway with “a Gulf area country”, saying Formula Equal would be “built from the bottom up in a Gulf state”.
RacingNews365.com reported that rumours linked Pollock to Saudi Arabian figures, who want an official F1 team to represent their country.
Andretti Cadillac
Michael Andretti has been trying to join F1 in recent years.
In 2021 he explored buying the Alfa Romeo F1 team, but the deal ultimately fell over.
Now he’s back with his own “all-American” F1 team, backed by the parent company of Cadillac.
Andretti - a former racer himself with a storied history in the US - has said he wants to have a US driver in the team, which could pave the way for Indycar star Colton Herta to join the grid.
Alpine has also agreed to supply Andretti with power units, according to ESPN.
The team’s ongoing development is now being led by former Renault F1 technical director Nick Chester, according to The Race.
H26
Details of this team have come from a single article written by Dieter Rencken of RacingNews365.com.
According to the report (which relied on anonymous sources), F2 and F3 team Hitech want to step up to F1 and have started a project codenamed “H26”.
The report suggests the team is building ties with Mercedes. It said H26 have started wind-tunnel testing in a Mercedes facility and they’re focused on obtaining a Mercedes powertrain.
There’s even a suggestion that H26 could replace Aston Martin as a de facto Mercedes ‘B’ team.
RacingNews365.com reported at least four figures with F1 experience have joined the project. It also reported that H26 has the necessary financial backing, though the exact details are murky.
Panthera Team Asia
This team has been floating around since 2019, but their F1 plans were delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In January this year, team boss Benjamin Durand revealed to PlanetF1.com a new bid was underway. “We could have given up a long time ago on this project, but we believe in it,” he told the publication.
Panthera has given itself the label “Team Asia” and Durand said the Asian and Chinese markets needed to be developed. “They are all looking west, nobody’s looking east,” he said.
A lot of detail surrounding Panthera remains up in the air, especially around funding.
Interestingly, Reuters reported this week that Hong Kong billionaire Calvin Lo is considering backing a new F1 team - and he ruled out investing in Hitech or Andretti.
Lo also spoke of wanting to see F1 focus more on Asia, a strong suggestion that Panthera would be a natural fit…
That’s it! Those are the four options on the table
These are just the ones we know about, though. There is always a chance that more entries are happening quietly in the background.
The FIA’s evaluation of the new entries is due to conclude sometime in June, according to Motorsport.com - so expect an update around that time.
Which team (or teams) do you want to see join the F1 grid?