FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem says BYD and Geely have both approached the FIA about entering Formula 1, and that he would like any 12th team to come from China. Neither company has a deal, and no entry process is open.
Speaking at the New Economy Forum in Madrid, as reported by Brazilian outlet Grande Prêmio, Ben Sulayem said: “I met with other manufacturers, and they came saying they wanted to join. One of them was BYD and another was Geely.”
He said he suggested BYD start by buying an existing team, as Audi did with Sauber. “I said, ‘Why don’t you take over a team to start with?’ That was with BYD, why would I hide it? And they said, ‘No, we want to have our own team.’”
Ben Sulayem said he had told BYD to “come back with a serious proposal that shows us this is going to work”, and that the FIA could then open a new expression-of-interest process.
“The FIA can open the door for a 12th team. But do we need a team? No. We don’t need a team, we need the team,” he said.
No special rules
Ben Sulayem said any Chinese entry would have to follow the existing process and regulations. “The regulations will not be changed just because of the Chinese manufacturers. We cannot do that. The regulations need to remain stable,” he said.
He gave China’s place in the sport as the reason for his preference. “We have a race in China. It’s huge. We have the manufacturers, we also had a Chinese driver, and Chinese technology is there. But everything has to be done on our terms and according to our regulations, which are fair to everyone, because that is also the FIA’s responsibility.”
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has said the championship does not need another team in the medium term. The grid grew to 11 teams this season with the arrival of Cadillac, which entered through an FIA expression-of-interest process opened in 2023 and uses Ferrari power units until its own engine is ready.
BYD and Geely
BYD has spoken about Formula 1 before. Executive vice president Stella Li said in April that an entry was “something we’re discussing”, and that the company had met Domenicali in Shanghai. By July her position had cooled: “the dream is always there, but we don’t have a concrete agenda.”
BYD special advisor Alfredo Altavilla has said: “We will never participate in Formula 1 just to put a sticker on the side of a car.”
Geely owns Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, which has decades of Formula 1 history.
