F1 News: Another Team Eager To Join Grid - "Asia And Africa Are The Next Big Market"
Panthera Team Asia F1 are still keen on joining the Formula 1 grid in 2026.
Headlines have been flooded by the news that Andretti Autosport have joined forces with Cadillac and General Motors to hopefully help them gain a spot on the F1 grid. However, Andretti are not the only ones hoping to join the sport.
Panthera had expressed their interest in a spot in the sport back in 2019, however the Covid-19 pandemic pushed this back.
During an interview with Planet F1 as quoted by F1Fall.com, Panthera spoke about their ambitions to be F1's Asian team. Co-founder and team principal Benjamin Durand explained:
“It’s been a rollercoaster. We still think that the Asian market and Chinese market are the next markets to be developed.
“They are all looking west, nobody’s looking east. Now F1 is focusing a lot on the US which is normal because it’s growing but once that market is there, Asia and Africa are the next big market for F1, especially now that Zhou [Guanyu] is in the championship.”
The team chief went on to discuss the difficulties the team have had so far with the coronavirus pandemic and poor timing. He added:
“The particular issue you have when you want to try to create a Formula 1 team is to have all the planets align.
“So when we had the money, the FIA and F1 were not ready because at the time they were renegotiating the Concorde Agreement. So they were not ready to have new teams arriving until they signed the existing teams.
“Then we also talked with Renault to be partners on the technical side. They went through a lot of management changes during the last five years and it impacted our project directly.
“Things were back again for the possibility for us to enter then the pandemic arrived and we lost funding. So we had to work again on the financial side. It’s an ongoing rollercoaster.”
Durand also spoke about the team potentially speaking with Calvin Lo, a Hong Kong billionaire who has also expressed interest in entering the sport. Durand continued:
“We haven’t talked to Calvin Lo right now. It was interesting to see his comments in the press because he’s saying basically also what we’re saying that the Asian market isn’t the focus right now, the US is.
“So everybody’s looking over there. They’re all looking west. Nobody’s looking east which is a mistake but also good for us because this is what we can bring. So there are a lot of things that are in line with Calvin Lo.
“I don’t have details about his project but we are open to everything. We are still in the stage if whoever comes can bring us something that can reinforce our project and reinforce the bid for F1 [then that is good].”