FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem says he has instructed his organisation to look at an ‘expressions of interest’ process for possible new Formula 1 teams.
Formula 1 has not had a new team since 2016, when Haas joined the championship, while the previous new entrants came in 2010 before all collapsing.
Since Haas’ entry there have only been a couple of parties that have gone on record stating their interest to join the championship.
The most vocal has been Andretti, which revealed last February that it wants to enter a team into Formula 1 from 2024, with a Renault deal and a driver line-up fronted by Colton Herta.
Andretti has pressed ahead with plans across the past 10 months despite the lack of a 2024 entry.
Formula 1 has remained resistant to the notion of expanding beyond the current 10-team grid that has remained unchanged since Liberty Media’s arrival in 2017.
CEO Stefano Domenicali has regularly emphasised that the championship is keen to retain the existing 10 entrants while several other current teams have also been resistant to the expansion of the grid.
This is due to the financial structure of the championship and concerns some teams have over splitting prize money between more parties.
On Monday Ben Sulayem used his official Twitter account to surprisingly reveal that he has “asked my FIA team to look at launching an Expressions of Interest process for prospective new teams for the FIA F1 World Championship.”
The FIA has been contacted for further information regarding Ben Sulayem’s message.
