FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem says motorsport’s governing body will actively launch a process to find possible new teams to join the Formula 1 grid in future seasons.
Formula 1 has maintained just 10 teams on the grid since the departure of Manor at the end of 2016. However, the United States-based Andretti organisation has been open of its intentions to bid for an entry into Formula 1 as an 11th team.
In a statement shared on social media, Ben Sulayem stated the FIA would begin a process of searching for possible new entries in the sport at his bequest.
“I have asked my FIA team to look at launching an expressions of interest process for prospective new teams for the FIA F1 World Championship,” read Ben Sulayem’s statement.
Beyond Andretti, over recent months Hong Kong-based Canadian billionaire Calvin Lo has also discussed his interest in establishing his own Formula 1 team to join the grid as a new entry.
Currently, under the Concorde Agreement, any new entrants to Formula 1 must pay a fee of $200 million (£164.8m) to be divided between the existing teams. Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has previous stated his belief that Formula 1 does not require an 11th team in order to continue to remain successful.
Only one entirely new team has entered Formula 1 in the previous ten years: Haas, which joined the world championship in 2016. Prior to that, Formula 1 saw four brand new teams granted permission to join in the same season in 2010 – Virgin, Lotus, HRT and USF1. However, USF1 failed to appear on the grid at all, and none of the teams which did enter were still in the sport by 2017.
Andretti recently broke ground at a brand new team headquarters in Indiana to enhance their global racing programmes, including IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E. The new facility is currently set to open in 2025.
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