The International Automobile Federation (FIA) on Thursday launched an application process for teams wishing to join the Formula 1 championship, in order to potentially increase the number of teams present on the grid, currently at ten.
“The FIA has decided to open an application procedure to try to identify one or more new F1 teams which will participate at a competitive level in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship” at the earliest in 2025, is it written in a document intended for the candidates.
This announcement comes at a time when interest in the top category of motorsport continues to grow, both among the public and brands – like Andretti Global.
At the beginning of January, the American car team announced that it had joined forces with the American car manufacturer General Motors (GM) to try to integrate F1 in the coming years.
Concretely, the evaluation of each application “will be based on a rigorous financial and technical analysis”, explained the FIA in a press release.
It will focus in particular “on the technical capacities and resources of the candidate team, on the ability of the team to raise and maintain sufficient funding to allow participation in the championship at a competitive level, as well as on the experience and human resources “.
Candidates will also be required to meet the criteria of equality, diversity, inclusion and sustainability and will have to explain how they intend to achieve the carbon neutrality objective set by the discipline in 2030.
They have until April 30 to submit their application, before a decision is expected on June 30, 2023.
However, recalls the body, “the maximum number of teams participating in the Championship until the end of the 2025 season is capped at 12”. And to add: “existing F1 teams will have priority over new candidates”.
In the event that no “candidate is considered suitable by the FIA and/or by the F1 commercial rights holder (Liberty Media, editor’s note), no new F1 team will be selected”.
For now, several teams currently present in this discipline are reluctant because of the financial impact that the presence of new teams would have on the distribution of profits generated by F1.