More New F1 Team Bids Are Expected But The Process Will Take "several Months"

Andretti and Cadillac’s announcement yesterday of their decision to compete in Formula 1 is expected to be the first of many.

An F1 spokesman said yesterday there was “huge interest” in the series at the moment. However, new teams cannot be introduced before 2026 when F1 introduces new power unit regulations and changes to chassis regulations.

In addition to Andretti-Cadillac’s entry, other potential entrants have emerged in recent years.

Former SMP Racing managing director Benjamin Durand has formed a project with Michael Orts called Panthera Team Asia F1, the details of which were released in 2019. The pair set up temporary headquarters in Silverstone and brought former F1 designer Tim Mills on board. They had initially hoped to enter F1 in 2021 when new technical regulations were introduced, but these have been postponed for a year due to the pandemic and the FIA has not started a bidding process for a new team to enter.

Another new F1 prospect has emerged in 2019. Monaco Incremental Management Group CEO Salvatore Gandolfo has announced plans to enter the Monaco F1 Racing Team name. The team had to use the Junior Formula team’s Campos facilities and MM-led drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Alex Palu were named as drivers.

Recently, Canadian billionaire and motorsport enthusiast Calvin Lo has expressed his desire to form an F1 team.

At the moment, all the registrants are waiting for further details of the entry process, said FIA President Mohamed Ben Sulaiman, which will take place at the beginning of this week.

“The FIA is investigating the expressions of interest and we will provide further updates in the near future,” Ben Sulaiman said yesterday. “Any expression of interest process follows strict FIA protocol and will take several months.”

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