Another potential new entrant to the Formula 1 grid has announced its intention to join the series.
LKY SUNZ says it has secured backing from US sports fund Legends Advocates Sports Group and other Asian investors. It plans to submit an entry ahead of the FIA’s deadline for new applications, which were invited earlier this year.The project was co-founded by Benjamin Durand, who was previously involved in another attempt to enter a team in Formula 1. His Panthera Team Asia project was announced in 2019. Its other co-founders are Andrew Pyrah, who has been named chief commercial officer, and Paul Fleming, its chairman.
LKY SUNZ – which takes its name from a combination of ‘Lucky’, which it calls a “nod to the Asian heritage of the team”, and ‘SUNZ’ representing the sun – intends to operate from a location in Europe. However it intends to construct a “state-of-the-art net zero green energy-powered factory complex” in the south-east of Asia. The team “aims to be on the grid for the 2025/2026 season”.
“We are excited to see our investors share our vision of fusing youth culture and racing to create a team that will disrupt F1,” said Durand. “The sport’s popularity has grown exponentially and every current stakeholder in the sport has been responsible for that, but our guiding principle is to bring something different into the sport to appeal to new audiences.
“By being the only team operating outside the traditional F1 corridors and developing bespoke programmes to attract talent from underrepresented communities, we can bring a diversity of thought yet to be seen in F1.
“We of course aim to be competitive on the track but we also commit to entertaining fans off the track. To support our plans, we have already brought onboard an impressive team of motorsport executives, music and entertainment industry experts and creatives who will help bring this vision to life.”
Other parties have already declared an interest in joining the F1 grid after the FIA said it would consider applications to compete from the 2025, 2026 or 2027 seasons. Michael Andretti was the first to throw his hat into the ring, with a project backed by General Motors brand Cadillac. Former F1 team principal Craig Pollock is seeking to enter a team called Formula Equal, which intends to accumulate a workforce with an equal gender split, and has funding from sources in the Middle East, believed to be in Saudi Arabia.
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Pedro Andrade
3rd May 2023, 14:48
LKY SUNZ – I thought we had reached the botton of the barrel with Rokit and Rich Energy, it seems it can go even lower.
Alex
3rd May 2023, 14:52
Can’t wait to hear why this team is more prestigious than Andretti or Cadillac …
sam
3rd May 2023, 16:52
Bravo!
GeeMac (@geemac)
4th May 2023, 6:36
Indeed, looking forward to hearing the existing teams talking about how much more value this startup would add to F1 compared to a motor manufacturer and a racing legend…
Dex
3rd May 2023, 14:59
So far only Andretti doesn’t seem to be joking around and thinking of what would be the funniest application, “for the lolz”… First some play with genders (!?), now a team which name no one would be able to spell or pronounce without guessing, what’s next? Maybe an American team with 50-50% democrat-republican workforce, or a team that employs only 168cm tall people with green eyes born in October, to remind the owner of his wife or a favourite TV show character… Everyone talks about some message they want to send (like we’re not bombarded enough…), how about some racing, some petrol-heads (well, ERS-heads, whatever)?
Pedro Andrade
3rd May 2023, 15:07
Now that’s a gimmick I had not thought of before. Can the Saudis back that?
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
4th May 2023, 12:40
Just spent a full minute trying to whisper the correct spelling.
Steve Holmes
3rd May 2023, 15:21
Hey F1 you dudes afraid of Andretti coming in and dominating your private party? They are set to go and you promote this unknown dreamer for 2025?
Come on F1 you given us the embarrassing Miami Joke Track and a new American GrandPrix in Vegas with a race start time only convenient for towel head nations.
Why???
Middle East Dollars by the bucket full.
25-30 races a year and tracks like Miami are Vegas are only about making race day money. They will go away after the next guy with a fatter wallet shows up.
I challenge you you print this. It’s all true and needs to be read. I’m just a dumb guy who happens to understand Formula One better than 90% of your base of readers.
Quit being such a chicken and let my words be dismissed by the readers instead of this solution to collect only favorable kind nice words in response.
I’ve started my stopwatch how long will this last. Give it an hour and see how my contribution creates interest and people will respond.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
4th May 2023, 16:11
Wow – need to review your meds?
asd
3rd May 2023, 15:34
Formula 1 used to be way more entertaining with a slew of obscure teams who mostly produced slow but very cool looking cars and gave F1 seats to young talents who then turned out to be future champions.
Mark Thomson (@melthom)
3rd May 2023, 18:15
+1
x303 (@x303)
3rd May 2023, 21:29
That was the good old days. But if you look a the comments under the article, people don’t want that anymore. Such a shame because it was fun and from time to time it provided some good racing.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
3rd May 2023, 15:35
And Andretti’s entry bid isn’t seen as serious??
Archibald Bumfluff
3rd May 2023, 16:17
Best of luck to them.
The more the merrier!
x303 (@x303)
3rd May 2023, 21:29
That’s the spirit my friend!
macaque (@macaque)
3rd May 2023, 17:16
Too bad they can’t be sponsored by Lucky Strike. They could at least try to get Sainz.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
3rd May 2023, 17:34
This is great. We haven’t had a proper silly season for F1 teams since 2009-10. I can’t wait for Zoran Stefanovic to announce his new bid.
Kringle
3rd May 2023, 17:47
Sounds like a flop if ever I heard one.
That or ditch finder tyres.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
3rd May 2023, 18:01
Would rather see the “state-of-the-art net zero green energy-powered factory complex” first before they are allowed to compete in a season. Dont want a repeat of Peter Windsor-Ken Anderson US F1 again now, do we?
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
3rd May 2023, 18:10
Oh my goodness me ….
I can see a time in the not too distant future when it will far too embarrassing to admit to being a F1 fan.
;)
davidhunter13 (@davidhunter13)
3rd May 2023, 18:29
Wasn’t Benetton a fashion brand..? How is this any different?
anon
3rd May 2023, 19:39
@davidhunter13 for a start, the Benetton family spent several years building connections within the motorsport world through their sponsorship deals of other entities, such as through sponsoring Euroracing when Alfa Romeo sub-contracted the management of their works team to them.
That eventually resulted in the takeover of Toleman, which was an established team with some fairly well respected technical staff on board, like Rory Byrne, and Luciano was respected for the way that he sought to maintain and build the technical department that had been at Toleman, as well as the deals he did to broker the agreement with BMW for engines.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
3rd May 2023, 20:27
It’s the
that concerns me.
They are making it clear from day one that this isn’t about a love of F1.
They want to buy into the Showbiz aspect as much as the racing, probably more as they wont have to pay Liberty a cut of their music/game/movie profits if they know what they are doing ;)
davidhunter13 (@davidhunter13)
3rd May 2023, 23:31
Red Bull is literally an energy drinks company doing this for the “extreme sports” marketing of the brand. Who actually cares..? If the team and drivers try to win as hard as everyone else and do well, no one will care about all the other stuff. And also… welcome to the modern world. Whether you like it or not branding and the extraneous stuff counts, and it’s why F1 ever got anywhere. The personalities and the drama whether you like it or not. The Hamilton Vs Verstappen, or back to Senna Vs Prost. The sport wouldn’t exist without such characters and the drama of it all that brings fans in. The very niche fan bases and little money swirling around in lower racing categories kinda shows this. F1 would simply not exist without these other areas propping up the sport.
Jose Silva
3rd May 2023, 21:25
I hope you’re not one of those people feeling nostalgic about Life, Coloni-Subaru and Andrea Moda.
Qeki (@qeki)
3rd May 2023, 18:35
Wake me up when they actually get trough the FIA paperworks and be on the track
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
3rd May 2023, 19:31
BLLKS
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
4th May 2023, 16:13
Comment of the day – surely!
Neil (@neilosjames)
3rd May 2023, 22:40
I can see the teams deciding to quadruple the ‘dilution fee’ just to avoid having to share a timesheet with a name like that.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
4th May 2023, 2:10
Smells like HRT.
Trayambak Chakravarty (@major-dev)
4th May 2023, 6:41
Good to know they have got the priority people on board first, the engineers and mechanics can come later.
Electroball76
4th May 2023, 8:37
Lacky? Licky? Lowkey? Lowestoft?
Lovely KeYlime pie in the SUn in New Zealand?
DaveW (@dmw)
4th May 2023, 15:46
The team is no more Asia based than anyone other team right now. And westerners saying “lucky” is a reference to Asian culture is super cringe.
Matt (@hollidog)
4th May 2023, 17:51
Pretty sure I bought a spatula off Amazon from this company