Exclusive
LKY SUNZ in F1? This is the state of play, according to the CEO!
- Ludo van Denderen
Four teams - as far as is known - want to make their entrance into Formula 1 from 2025 at the earliest. Andretti Cadillac is the most outspoken and best known; Hitech, Rodin Carlin and LKY SUNZ also want to join the king class of motorsport. The latter candidate has secured a billion dollars with which to pay the entry fee to F1, the team announced on Friday. But on the very same day, it leaked that the FIA had informed Hitech, Carlin as well and LKY SUNZ that they would not be granted an F1 licence.
Benjamin Durand, the CEO of LKY SUNZ is audibly proud. Indeed, raising one billion dollars is an achievement that will soon fund an entry fee for Formula 1. Exactly how high that entry fee will be is unknown. Under the current Concorde Agreement, a newcomer would have to pay $200 million to enter the grid at all, provided it has an F1 licence granted by the FIA and if the other teams also see the added value of the future F1 team. However, given the increased value of F1 and the teams therein, the story has been going around for some time now that the entry fee will be increased to at least $600 million.
Backers with deep pockets
Who exactly are the backers? "We have backers who believe in our project, believe in the value of F1 and believe in what we can bring to F1. We help bring even more people to see F1," Durand (pictured right) said in an exclusive interview with GPblog. Yet the Frenchman, who wants to compete in F1 with his team from '26, cannot give names: "It's a sports fund. We are working with well-established institutions and banking institutions. They have the capacity. They are working on projects of this kind in different sports. It’s not just their first project. They are well established in other sports and raise this level of funding for other sports."
In case there is any doubt; these people are really not fantasists, Durand stresses. "Yes, they are serious. Obviously, we want to be diligent with the FIA and provide them with information. They are not very well known, it's not a big name, but that doesn't mean that they don't have the capacity. They are more discreet. We understand that there are a lot of questions concerning them because they are not a high-profile company. That doesn't mean that they cannot raise the level of funding. The partners, the banks, working with the institutions, working with the governments working with very high profiles. Again, we would not have put this kind of statement out to say that we are ready to pay this if we were not in the capacity to do that."
Has LKY SUNZ already been rejected by the FIA?
According to German media, the FIA has now reportedly informed LKY SUNZ that an F1 licence is not in the cards. Durand responded: "I cannot say anything because we are with the FIA. The only thing I can say is that there is discussion. I cannot comment on the FIA process right now. We are working with the FIA, so I let the FIA communicate that."
When the FIA will come out with a decision, Durand says he does not know. He says the original plan was 'the end of September', but does not rule out the process continuing for several more months.