At the beginning of the year 2023, the FIA announced the launch of the application process for new teams to enter Formula 1 from 2026. Several candidates are already known: Andretti Cadillac, Craig’s Formula Equal team Pollock, which Stefano Domenicali has never heard of, and Hitech owner Oliver Oakes’ H26 project.
Today it became known about the fourth potential candidate for participation in Formula 1 – the LKY SUNZ team from Southeast Asia. The project is led by Benjamin Durend, former general manager of SMP Racing and BR Engineering, who worked in the Russian program at WEC and was previously a founding member of another F1 team project, the Panthera Asia F1 Team.
Along with Durend, other members of the Panthera project are involved in LKY SUNZ: Paul Fleming, who was appointed as head, and Andrew Pyra, who assumed the position of commercial director.
LKY SUNZ has already received investment from US sports fund Legends Advocates Sports Group and corporate and private investors from Asia. The team plans to build a new base in Southeast Asia, but initially the cars will be assembled at a European base.
The team’s name is encoded with the abbreviations Lucky (“Lucky”) and Sun (“Sun”), which is present on the flags of many Asian countries and symbolizes “a tribute to the team’s Asian heritage”. At the heart of LKY SUNZ’s vision is to build relationships with urban communities around the world, from North America to Asia and Africa, to “bring motorsports opportunities to underrepresented groups.”
“We are delighted that investors share our vision to bring youth culture and motorsport together to create a team that will change Formula 1,” said Benjamin Derend. – The popularity of Formula 1 has grown exponentially, to the credit of all current competitors, but we are guided by the principle of bringing something new to the sport to attract a new audience.
As the only team to operate outside of traditional Formula 1 corridors and develop bespoke programs to attract talent from under-represented communities, we can bring a variety of ideas never before seen in Formula 1. Of course we want to be competitive on the track, but we also want to entertain the fans off the tracks.
To realize our vision, we have already assembled an impressive team of world leaders from motorsports, music and entertainment industry experts and creatives to bring our vision to life.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
