A billionaire businessman has revealed plans to arrange a brand new F1 group for 2026.
Calvin Lo, chief government of insurance coverage dealer RE Lee Worldwide, admits that he would ideally like to ascertain a brand new group however is open to purchasing right into a present outfit on the grid.
The Hong Kong businessman hopes to resolve on the method he’ll take “inside a month or two”.
“Based mostly on what I am seeing proper now, it is extremely aspirational, nevertheless it looks like it may be carried out if all the celebs are aligned,” Lo instructed BBC Sport of his plans.
“Based mostly on the timelines, the earlier [to decide the approach] the higher, proper? It appears even now’s a really tight timeline simply to place one thing on the grid by 2026.”
Lo has ‘purely monetary’ curiosity in plans
Lo has said that he wouldn’t be concerned within the day-to-day operating of a group, together with his curiosity being “purely monetary” although he’s a fan of the game.
With this in thoughts, he says that assessing the long-term monetary legal responsibility is a key side of his plans, having recommended that the preliminary funding is “not the troublesome half”.
“It is how lengthy you’ll be able to maintain it,” Lo continued.
“On this world, discovering liquidity for one or two years, comparatively it is simple. However are you able to final for 3 years… 5 years? That is the half that the crunching of the numbers is available in.
“I have a look at it identical to an funding. How lengthy do I’ve to amortise that value? At what yr, at what date, do we have to inject funds if it doesn’t hit sure targets?
“And, after all, the targets should be set realistically. You can’t simply go in first yr and win all the pieces. The numbers should be very conservatively managed. I believe that is the difficult half.”
How Lo faces a ‘hurdle’ in navigating F1 world
The possiblity of one other group becoming a member of the grid has been mentioned in latest instances, with Mario and Michael Andretti having voiced hopes of building a brand new group.
Nonetheless, response amongst different groups to the prospect of an eleventh outfit was blended, and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in August that the game didn’t want any new groups, although Michael Andretti lately claimed that the bid had made “fairly good progress” during the last two months.
Lo admits that studying to navigate the Formulation 1 world might pose a problem.
“Now we have a couple of events which are attempting to work with us, I suppose, who supposedly will assist us navigate all that,” he added.
“I do not know how the intricacies of the F1 world are. And I believe if something, that would be the largest hurdle to kind a brand new group.
“Perhaps it is simpler simply to spend money on a present group. That is the simplest method – the inspiration is about, it’s already up and operating.”
Lo says that his curiosity in launching a group has been influenced by the expansion of F1 lately and the extension of its fanbase amongst youthful followers.