The FIA has formally opened the process for up to two teams to enter Formula 1 as early as the 2025 season and will determine if any applicants are successful by the end of June.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem revealed last month that he wanted the governing body to look into beginning the official process for identifying potential new teams.
This has now begun with a call for expressions of interest published by the FIA, intended to identify “one or more new F1 teams” to compete from the start of the 2025, 2026 or 2027 season.
The F1 grid is capped at 12 teams under the current Concorde Agreement, the commercial contract teams agree with F1, which runs to the end of the 2025 season.
“The overall long-term interests of the championship” will be a priority in the process, which begins with prospective entrants being invited to express their preliminary interest in the form of an initial application that costs $20,000.
In this, the applicant needs to show that a company has been incorporated with details of its administrative headquarters, plus the identity of all shareholders, and information on the relevant experience and capabilities including technical experience, racing experience, facilities, equipment, and engineering resources.
The initial fee will be offset against the total application fee of $300,000, and the requirements for a full entry application will be provided to candidates by February 17 at the latest.
Formal applications must be submitted by April 30 with a decision by June 30 at the latest, after a thorough due diligence investigation assessing the technical ability and resources of the team, the ability to raise and maintain sufficient funding to participate at a competitive level, the team’s experience and human resources.
No applicant will be selected if they are not deemed suitable by both the FIA and F1’s commercial rights holder Liberty Media.
The FIA says that Liberty may also impose additional selection criteria or conditions that will be advised separately during the application process.
There is an anti-dilution fund enshrined in the Concorde Agreement that currently requires any new team to pay $200m to be shared between the existing teams, to help cover the lost F1 revenue that would have to go to new entries for their share.
If a team were to join in 2025 it may only have to pay the current anti-dilution fund cost of $200million instead of a much higher fee that could be implemented in the next Concorde Agreement.
The most prominent potential new entry has been the Michael Andretti-led joint bid from Andretti Global and General Motors. The Cadillac-branded proposal has been controversially talked up by Ben Sulayem but met with resistance from existing teams and F1 itself.
But there are other parties in discussion as well, just less prominently. Among the individuals and entities that have either expressed prior interest in an F1 entry or have been linked in some way are Honda, businessman Calvin Lo, Hyundai, Hitech GP and Panthera Team Asia.
Ben Sulayem said F1 has “unprecedented levels” of growth and appeal at the moment.
“For the first time ever, as part of the selection conditions, we are requesting that candidates set out how they would meet the FIA’s sustainability benchmarks and how they would make a positive societal impact through sport,” he said.
“The process is a logical extension of the positive acceptance of the FIA’s 2026 F1 Power Unit Regulations from engine manufacturers which has attracted Audi to Formula 1 and created interest among other potential entrants.”
