Two new F1 teams are moving closer to joining the grid with one venture refusing to drop their plans after overcoming a host of setbacks.
A new team has not entered F1 since 2016 when Haas debuted and the grid was reduced to ten teams in 2017 when Manor Racing dropped out. However, FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem has opened the door for an 11th team to join the grid by launching an Expressions of Interest process for prospective new teams.
Panthera Team Asia F1 first joined the race to join F1 in 2019 and despite initial plans failing they remain hopeful of 'becoming the team of Asia'.
Michael Andretti also wants to add an F1 team to the outfits he already runs including IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula E and other series. Andretti Autosport has announced a major new partnership deal with American carmaker Cadillac as part of its plans
Several challenges have faced Panthera during their battle to join F1, which started four years ago, including losing their funding during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with the door now opened by the FIA for another team to join their expanded series Durand hopes to make a renewed effort to join.
Team principal and co-founder Benjamin Durand told PlanetF1.com : “We started to develop the car on the aerodynamic side, we worked on the new regulation at the time, we did some CFD developments, we have some IP concerning the car but we stopped it.
“We are ready to resume. We have several people that are ready to jump on board that are not, for most of them, committed yet in Formula 1, so they don’t have the garden leave etc."
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With Zhou Guanyu becoming the first Chinese racing driver in F1 with Alfa Romeo the Panthera team want to target the eastern markets. Durand says the project has faced an 'ongoing rollercoaster' of challenges.
“We could have given up a long time ago on this project, but we believe in it," added Durand. “The particular issue you have when you want to try to create a Formula 1 team is to have all the planets align. So when we had the money, the FIA and F1 were not ready because at the time they were renegotiating the Concorde Agreement.
“Then we also talked with Renault to be partners on the technical side. They went through a lot of management changes during the last five years and it impacted our project directly.
“Things were back again for the possibility for us to enter then the pandemic arrived and we lost funding. So we had to work again on the financial side."
While the sport's bosses look open to a new team joining the series it has reiterated that "any new entrant request requires the agreement of both F1 and the FIA".
Durand says that his team are now awaiting confirmation of the exact requirements that the FIA will want to be met for any team that wants to join F1.
"We’ve been told that by the end of the month, they will release exactly what they expect from the teams," he added.
“But I don’t think we’re far from the truth in what we already have. The basic things that they told us at the time are the financial security of the team, the technical and management know-how and then what we can bring to F1 to make the championship grow. Those are the main factors where we need to tick the boxes.”
