FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has begun the process of planning for an expressions of interest for new teams to expand the Formula 1 grid.
F1’s recent surge commercially has led to a number of parties expressing an interest in joining the grid, including Andretti Global, who has revealed its target to enter the series in 2024.
Following the collapse of the Manor outfit at the end of the 2016 season, the F1 grid has remained at 10 teams, with the FIA showing no indication of evaluating new entries through a formal process.
But in a tweet from his official account on Monday, Ben Sulayem revealed he had held talks with his team about starting the process to open the door for new teams to join the grid.
“I have asked my FIA team to look at launching an Expressions of Interest process for prospective new teams for the FIA F1 World Championship,” read the tweet.
While this process would likely benefit a party hoping to enter F1 in the future, there is still a series of hurdles to overcome before an application is granted.
Andretti has seen efforts to earn a place on the grid stumble as existing teams are uncertain it would be a commercial benefit to have an 11th team amid the current distribution of prize money under the Concorde Agreement.
A new entrant would also be required to pay a dilution fund of $200 million that would be split among the other teams, with Andretti saying they would be prepared to pay the fee.
But there is concern among the current teams that the entry fee would not be enough to accommodate for the potential loss of revenue now F1’s value has boomed.
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