Calvin Lo: Businessman exploring plan to set up F1 team for 2026

Calvin Lo at the Singapore Grand PrixCalvin Lo

Calvin Lo said the growth of F1 in recent years had convinced him to look into setting up a team

By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Hong Kong businessman Calvin Lo is exploring a plan to set up a Formula 1 team for 2026.

Lo, chief executive of insurance broker RE Lee International, said he was assessing the financial requirements.

"Based on what I'm seeing right now, it's highly aspirational, but it seems like it can be done if all the stars are aligned," Lo, 46, told BBC Sport.

Lo said his "ideal" would be to start a new team but he was also considering buying into an existing one.

He said he would have to decide his approach "within a month or two".

"Based on the timelines, the sooner the better, right?" Lo said. "It seems even now is a very tight timeline just to put something on the grid by 2026."

Lo said he was an F1 fan, but that his ambitions in the sport are "purely financial" and he would not be involved in the day-to-day running of any team he set up.

Speaking on a video call from his base in Hong Kong, he said funding the set-up of a team was "not the difficult part" and the key to any decision would be the project's financial viability.

"It's how long you can sustain it," he said. "In this world, finding liquidity for one or two years, relatively it's easy. But can you last for three years... five years? That's the part that the crunching of the numbers comes in.

"I look at it just like an investment. How long do I have to amortise that cost? At what year, at what date, do we need to inject funds if it does not hit certain targets?

"And, of course, the targets must be set realistically. You cannot just go in first year and win everything. The numbers must be very conservatively managed. I think that's the tricky part."

Lo said the idea of setting up a team of his own was "not something I actively went out and hunted for" and it "just came about" as a result of being approached by teams wanting to "explore whether I was interested in injecting funds".

He said he already had "financial involvements in existing teams" but was "not able to say" which ones because of "certain restrictions".

A major hurdle for any new team is that F1's rules dictate they must pay $200m into a "dilution fund". That is to compensate the existing teams for the potential loss of income caused by the prize-money pot being split 11 ways rather than 10.

The sport is also reluctant to accept any new teams because of concern as to whether they would have a positive impact and achieve suitable levels of competitiveness. American racing legends Mario and Michael Andretti have so far been unable to gain agreement for their own project as a result.

Lo said he had not yet spoken to either the sport's governing body the FIA or commercial rights holder F1 about his plans, saying conversations were happening "through intermediaries".

He said he was aware of the barriers to F1 entry, adding: "We have a few parties that are trying to work with us, I suppose, who supposedly will help us navigate all that. I have no idea how the intricacies of the F1 world are. And I think if anything, that will be the biggest hurdle to form a new team.

"Maybe it's easier just to invest in a current team. That's the easiest way - the foundation is set, it is already up and running."

He said he was "actively exploring" which approach was best.

Lo said the growth of F1 in recent years had convinced him this was the right time to launch his project.

"F1 has changed from previous generations," he said. "Now it is much younger; the fanbase is much bigger, much wider.

"Social media is a big thing now. The idea of the accessibility to the teams, drivers; it may not be actual discussions with the fans but it just makes it feel much closer.

"The audience is much broader now than 20 years ago."

The article previously said Lo was a billionaire, and made reference to Forbes estimating his net worth at $1.7bn. However these references were removed in July 2023 after Forbes presented a new analysis of Lo's wealth. Lo has not responded to the BBC's requests for comment.

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