Ex-F1 boss plots return with new 12th team

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Ex-F1 boss plots return with new 12th team

Is there room on the grid for a 12th team?

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Thursday 14 May 2026 09:43

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Former F1 boss Otmar Szafnauer has revealed whether he will return to the sport with a 12th team.

Szafnauer has extensive experience in Formula 1, leading the Force India squad before and after the Racing Point/Aston Martin takeover, until eventually moving to Alpine and serving as their team principal from 2022 until 2023.

Speaking to The Race last year, Szafnauer revealed he had a 'serious people' ready to finance a 12th F1 team, calling the opportunity to start the enterprise as 'only a matter of time'.

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Szafnauer has a rival however, with Chinese automotive giant BYD also interested in entering F1 as a 12th team after vice president Stella Li confirmed talks with Stefano Domenicali.

Szafnauer still interested in F1 return

During a recent episode of the High Performance Racing podcast, host Jake Humphrey read the above report from the The Race and asked if he was still plotting a return to F1.

"If the opportunity arises at the right level, I would do it," Szafnauer revealed.

"However, before I sign any contract, it will be in there that I get to continue the High Performance Racing podcast with you boys," he joked.

Getting back to the topic, Humphrey asked: "Are you putting a consortium together for a 12th F1 team?”

To this Szafnauer replied: "I had done that for the 11th. Yeah. So they were already in place. It's just, you know, the 11th now is Cadillac. This was after Cadillac was denied by Liberty, right?

"So the 11th theme was still open and then that all changed and that became the 11th, the 12th, there’s one spot left by Concorde Agreement and probably by other natural rules of how many garages there are, safety on track, all sorts of stuff. 12 seems right, 24 cars. You can't have 13, 14, 15 teams.

"If there's one spot left, I believe Liberty will want a big name to take that 12th spot such that whoever gets it will enhance the entire sport and series. You know that's what they care about.

"So to put something like that together, we got to make sure that it's acceptable delivery."

F1 Otmar Szafnauer