Formula One: new Asian team LKY SUNZ announces bid to be on starting grid by 2025-26 season
- Team wants ‘youth focus’ and plans to be disrupter with focus on new audience
- Founders have secured significant investment from Asia and US-based Legends Advocates Sports Group
A new team based in Southeast Asia is to apply to join Formula One, with an eye on “disrupting” the sport and hitting the starting grid as early as the 2025-26 season.
The “youth culture-focused” outfit, LKY SUNZ, said it had secured significant investment from the US-based sports fund, Legends Advocates Sports Group, as well as private individuals and businesses in Asia.
According to a statement released on Wednesday, the team plans to submit its application before the FIA’s deadline in May.
Unlike other manufacturers, the new group said it would eventually be “wholly operational outside of Europe”, with a base in Southeast Asia and a commitment to developing close links with inner-city communities across the region, as well as in North America and Africa.
“This demonstrates the team’s commitment to providing under-represented communities opportunities in motorsports,” it said.
It will be run by co-founder Benjamin Durand, a motorsport veteran with experience in sports cars and who was behind the Panthera Team Asia F1 bid.