F1 News: FIA President Urges Teams To Reconsider Growing The Grid

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has urges F1 teams to understand the importance of expanding the grid.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has urged the current Formula One teams to understand the need for expanding the grid with the new regulations coming in 2026.

The sport is on its way to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and Sulayem believes that more Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) will be a big part of this.

During an interview with Motorsport-Total.com, Sulayem explained the importance of having more OEMs on the grid rather than power unit manufacturers. He commented:

“The new regulations are the reason why new OEMs are entering. Audi, for example.

"I understand [F1 teams] position. But they must also understand the position of the FIA. We want to make motorsport sustainable, and the only way to make motorsport sustainable is with more OEMs than power unit manufacturers and teams.

"[FIA and F1 teams] have been in advice for 18 months, but in the end everyone signed”

The prospect of expanding the grid has not exactly been met with open arms from some of the existing teams who are concerned that a new team will not bring much to the sport but will just dilute the winnings pot. 

The expressions of interest process is currently ongoing with the applications being reviewed. Andretti Cadillac is one of the hopeful teams and they have already started developing the car and have employed 25 workers in order to be ready to join the grid in either 2025 or 2026 if they are successful. 

Sulayem has also recently explained that he would love to have an 'All-American' team on the grid - Andretti Cadillac - as well as a Chinese team. According to the FIA president's previous comments, fans can hopefully expect to see announcements towards the end of this month surrounding this.