The FIA wants BYD in F1. BYD says there is no project
Ben Sulayem has picked F1's twelfth team before anyone has applied for it
The FIA president used the New Economy Forum in Madrid, held in the week of the first Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, to say plainly what he has been hinting since June: the next Formula 1 entry will be Chinese or there will not be one. He named BYD and Geely as the two manufacturers he has met, and he sent BYD away with homework.
'We don't need a team, we need the team': the FIA's China condition
Ben Sulayem's logic runs through the United States. Formula 1 has three American races and had Haas, but it 'needed an OEM', and Cadillac became that manufacturer in 2026. China has a race in Shanghai, had Zhou Guanyu at Sauber from 2022 to 2024, and has no manufacturer on the grid. 'The FIA can open for a twelfth team. But do we need a team? No, we don't need a team, we need the team,' he said, adding that Formula One Management agrees the team 'has to come from China'. The FIA's 2023 expression of interest produced only Cadillac; the next one, he says, opens only for a Chinese manufacturer with a proposal that holds up.
BYD refused to buy a team, and Cadillac's $450 million sets the entry price
Ben Sulayem first told BYD to take over an existing team, as Audi did with Sauber. BYD wanted its own. 'Fine. Then come back with a serious offer that we can see that it's going to work,' was his reply, so BYD and Geely remain names in a conversation, not applicants. Under the 2026 Concorde Agreement Cadillac paid a $450 million anti-dilution fee, split between the ten existing teams, and Toto Wolff called that figure too low. A twelfth team would be asked for more, because the prize fund is now divided eleven ways.
Stella Li at Goodwood in July: 'there is no project'
Christian Horner was photographed with BYD executives at Cannes in May, and the Financial Times reported that the former Red Bull boss was in talks with the company about a new team. By the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, BYD's executive vice president Stella Li had hardened the line: 'No, no, there is no project. The dream is always there, but we don't have a concrete agenda.' Special adviser Alfredo Altavilla went further: BYD 'will never participate in Formula 1 just to put a sticker on the side of a car', and would only enter as a technology partner. Horner, who wants equity, has since been linked to Alpine and Aston Martin.
F1 is heading for V8 engines in 2031, and BYD's technology is the battery
That condition is where the two sides collide. Altavilla tied BYD's interest to the next engine rules, and those rules are moving towards a V8 with a smaller hybrid share from 2031. Ben Sulayem said in Madrid that the regulations 'cannot be affected only by Chinese manufacturers' and asked whether electrification 'is the only way to reach our target'. The FIA is inviting the world's largest electric-car maker into a formula written to depend less on the thing BYD leads in. Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1's chief executive, said in September 2025 that the paddock had 'no more room' for a twelfth team, and has not said otherwise since.
Geely already wins titles, and BYD's only European race car is a privateer Seal
Of the two names, Geely is the one with a racing record. Its Lynk & Co brand won the WTCR drivers' title with Yann Ehrlacher in 2020 and 2021, it owns Lotus, and it is reportedly closing in on Le Mans as Alpine leaves the Hypercar class. The first BYD racing car in Europe ran on 28 August in Timișoara: a Seal converted for Cristiana Oprea, 530 hp and around 160 kg lighter than standard, entered in Romania's national super rally championship with a leasing company and a bank as sponsors and no factory behind it. A company that earns 53 percent of its revenue outside China has not put its own name on a race car there.
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Ben Sulayem has reversed the usual order of a Formula 1 entry. Cadillac spent three years, one rejected application and $450 million proving it deserved a slot; BYD has been offered a slot before it has asked for one. That is a courtship, not a tender, and the company being courted said in July that it is not interested. The gap is the engine: the FIA is drafting a V8 formula for 2031 while pitching the manufacturer whose entire case for racing is a battery.
The nearest date is 10 October, when Cristiana Oprea's Seal runs the Bucharest Trophy with a leasing company on the door. If BYD lets a privateer carry its badge through a whole first European season without putting its own name on the car, the FIA is courting a manufacturer that has not yet spent the price of a rally entry on racing. Ben Sulayem should read that before he opens another tender.
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