Second Asian F1 team wants to revive project

The queue of teams looking to make their entry into Formula 1 is getting longer and longer. The Panthera Team Asia F1 project is also aiming for another attempt led by team boss and co-founder Benjamin Durand.

Back in 2019, Durand announced that the Panthera Asia F1 project would make its entry into Formula 1. However, then the coronavirus pandemic came around the corner and the plans were off the table. The finances are now back in order and so the team wants to make another attempt to enter Formula 1.

However, Durand also knows that things need to be in place to get everything done. As in 2019, the finances are in order, but now F1 and the FIA still have to give the green light. It won't take much for the project to take off, as 2019 already had a solid foundation in place.

"COVID stopped things for us. We started to develop the car on the aerodynamic side, we worked on the new regulation at the time, we did some CFD developments,'' Durand revealed in conversation with PlanetF1. There were also talks with Renault, which, as with Andretti, might become the engine supplier.

So the project had already started and can also be restarted in no time, according to the team boss. ''We are ready to resume. We have several people that are ready to jump on board that are not, for most of them, committed yet in Formula 1, so they don’t have the garden leave etc.''

Besides Andretti Cadillac and Calvin Lo's F1 team, the Panthera Asia F1 project is the third team knocking on Formula 1's door. For now, the existing F1 teams in particular prefer to keep the door shut. Despite the potential influx of Asian sponsors, the current teams do not see it made to spread their money over more teams. The FIA, led by Mohammed Ben Sulayem, thinks otherwise.