Background: After success in F2, F3 AND F4, Hitech now wants to storm F1
General
- Toby McLuskie
Hitech Grand Prix confirmed on Monday afternoon that it will officially make a bid for a spot in Formula 1 from 2026. There is some competition, but the British formation is very confident about the application, which has taken almost two years to prepare. Where can we know the British team from and who is behind the ambitious project?
Hitech currently competes in Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula 4 and is thus a proven high-level player in various motorsport classes. The team has been competing in various Formula 3 classes for years and has been competing in the FIA's F3 International Championship since 2019. In their debut season, with former Red Bull junior Jüri Vips, they immediately finished second in the championship with 223 points.
Fun fact: Hitech also competed (once) in the F3 Asian Winter Series in 2019. Rinus van Kalmthout competed for the team and captured first place in the championship. Hitech also won the constructors' title that year.
Also participating in Formula 2 and Formula 4
Partly thanks to the F3 success, it was decided to enter Formula 2 in 2020. Normally, a team cannot just decide to join Formula 2, but the organisers of the step-up class then single-handedly made it possible for Hitech to become the 11th team on the grid by allocating an extra starting place.
Nikita Mazepin, former Haas F1 Formula 1 driver, and Luca Ghiotto, reserve driver at Nissan in Formula E, competed for Hitech in its debut season. Once again, Hitech proved that it can prepare excellently for debuting in a new racing class. They immediately proved with a fourth place in the F2 Constructors' Championship that they are a team to be reckoned with.
In 2021, Mazepin and Ghiotto left the team and (now) Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson and Vips (who had made a foray into KIC Motorsport in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2020) came to drive for Hitech in Formula 2. Once again, they finished fourth in the World Championship standings and so there was reason to expand the motorsport empire even further.
Because from 2022, Hitech also started driving Formula 4. Every year, Hitech cars can also be admired in the Formula 4 UAE Championship and the F4 British Championship. And you might have guessed it, in its debut season, the formation was immediately successful. In the British F4, Alex Dunne captured the title, although the successful year proved just short of the constructors' title. In the UAE championship, the team did win, but more often than not finished in the middle of the pack.
Time for Formula 1
Hitech has thus quickly become one of the leading teams in Formula 2 and Formula 3. In recent years, the team has established an excellent track record in guiding young drivers on their way to the top of motorsport. In every racing class it has competed in, it has proved (relatively) successful and so it is now time for Formula 1.
The motivation behind it? "In 2023, is after 20 months of planning and extensive preparations at its base in Silverstone, Hitech applied to enter the FIA Formula One World Championship from the 2026 season, a step that would complete the single-seater ladder and demonstrate that Hitech has the right people, experience and resources to compete with the best teams in the world," a press release read.
F1 is not free
Taking part in the king class of motorsport comes with a hefty price tag. Not only did the submitted application already require a considerable amount of money to be deposited, but for a final entry in Formula 1, $200 million has to be ticked off. Hitech is a financially sound company, but not with that much money in the bank.
Incidentally, like Haas F1, Hitech was sponsored by Russia's Uralkali until early 2022. Nikita Mazepin had been associated with Hitech since 2016, and from then on Uralkali was also involved in its operations. However, the sponsorship agreement with the Russian fertiliser company was immediately terminated following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. With that, an important source of income for Hitech GP disappeared.
To make up the finances, Vladimir Kim was brought in. The Kazakh businessman is taking over a quarter of the shares of Hitech Holding - which includes the future F1 branch. This will immediately give Hitech a decent sum of money that can be used to make the step into Formula 1.
If it comes to that, Hitech will not drive its own engine in Formula 1. They will then have to look for an engine supplier. There will only be more clarity on that when the FIA allows Hitech. However, the competition is not tough with Andretti-Cadillac, LKY SUNZ and Formula Equal.