Formula One: LKY SUNZ going ‘whole hog’ in bid to join racing’s elite, says co-founder Pyrah
- Team’s chief commercial officer Andrew Pyrah says no point chasing place on grid unless you ‘fully commit to it’
- The new outfit is positioning itself as the only Asian team in the sport and says it has received positive feedback from race bosses
The deadline for Formula One hopefuls to submit bids to join the elite ranks of motorsport is getting ever nearer, and with plenty of groups expressing interest, one hopes their Asian connection helps them stand out.
LKY SUNZ have positioned themselves as a team that will not only represent Asia but be based there as well, and Andrew Pyrah, the co-founder and chief commercial officer, believes that could make all the difference.
In a release announcing their arrival alongside the likes of Mario Andretti and Cadillac, Panthera Team Asia and others wanting to join the grid in 2026, LKY SUNZ said they eventually intended to be “wholly operational outside Europe”.
With plans to build a factory in Asia, Pyrah said that “if you’re going to do something like this, you have to fully commit to it”.
“You can just slap a Malaysian flag or an Indian flag on a car and say you’re an Indian team or a Malaysian team, and not really go the whole hog with it,” Pyrah said, referring to previous attempts by Lotus and Force India to place themselves as representing Asia.
The Englishman said he did not understand why a team had not yet fully committed to the region, because “the opportunity in Asia and Southeast Asia is insane”.
“There is the ability to completely rev up a continent that could just bring so much energy into the sport, but also, more importantly, wherever that team is based it gives an opportunity to the locals to get involved in the team and build the team until they can make a team that the rest of the continent can happily cheer on,” he said.
That Asia is a largely untapped market for Formula One is not new. Although China has hosted the Shanghai Grand Prix, the sport still falls some way behind the likes of football and basketball.
Similarly, Vietnam and Thailand are considered potential hotbeds, and Pyrah and his fellow co-founders believe what makes them different from all the other teams is their desire to make those countries their home.
“We don’t want to just go into a market because we think we can monetise it, we want to go in because we want to bring a new diverse culture into the sport,” he said.
A man who learned at the feet of sports promoter Barry Hearn, Pyrah is just as interested in disrupting the status quo and “being entertained” as he is in joining the elite.
“I want to be entertained by different types of people, I don’t want to see that same stuff every week,” he said.
It would be easy to dismiss LKY SUNZ and Panthera – also aiming to be Asia’s team – as exciting but short on substance.
Yet Pyrah’s group have attracted significant investment from the United States and across Asia, and he said the feedback from the FIA, the sport’s governing body, had left them “positive that we’re doing the right thing”.
“In terms of Formula One itself, those stakeholders are intelligent enough to know what a bid from the LKY SUNZ can do. They might not say it openly, but inside they’ve got to be thinking that if we’re based over here [Asia] and they’re based over there [Europe], we can all have a benefit from this.
“Quietly, I would be surprised if they are not positive about our bid.”
