After $65 Million Racing Fest, Saudi Arabia Aims for a Bigger Share of F1 Pie With a New Ambition

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali appears to be under immense pressure as the competition for the 11th team is heating up. Formula 1 now has a new applicant, following Andretti, who have been extremely vocal about their ambition to enter the world of motorsports. Yet, this applicant appears to be looking to strengthen their ties to the sports community because they already have a good association with Formula One and want to build on that with their fresh aspirations.

As it turns out, Saudi Arabia wants its own team on the grid. The country has a history with Formula 1 dating back to the 1970s. Founder of the Williams Formula One team, Frank Williams had sponsorships from Middle Eastern companies, such as Fly Saudia. And if we consider the current situation, we see that Aston Martin is partners with Saudi Arabian Oil Group, Aramco, and Zak Brown’s McLaren is associated with NEOM, a real estate development project.

In addition to all of this, the Saudi Arabian government has been showing support of sports. For example, when the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was first announced for 2021, it was only intended to provide short-term assistance to F1. However, the situation now appears to be different as the circuit’s services appear to be extended until 2027.

Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Motor Sport Federation, Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Abdullah Al Faisal, as per motorsport-total.com, said, “We all know that this race will move to another location in the future. But we’ve invested a lot in the promenade, and it’s starting to feel a bit like a permanent facility.”

Seeing the success of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, a $65 million/year affair, Prince Khalid now has a new ambition. He said, “In the future, I expect these relationships to grow and play a greater role, and that one day we will even have our own Saudi team or a Saudi driver in Formula 1.”

READ MORE: Saudi Minister Open to Discussions With Lewis Hamilton Following His Comments at Jeddah

If we see the hardships that have endured by Andretti in their attempt to enter the pinnacle of motorsports, it might not be a cakewalk for the county to field their team that easily. However, the Prince is not stopping there and has another vision to share.

Saudi Arabian Prince desires to bring one of the manufacturers to his country

The country is eager to develop after the success of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, one of the few races that are hosted at races. As McLaren and Aston Martin’s partners are from the Middle East, the prince hopes they would go even further and entice companies to locate their headquarters in the country in Western Asia.

As per racingnews365, Prince Khalid says, “Hopefully we can bring one of the big manufacturers. We have a 20-year programme that hopefully will launch at the end of 2023, early 2024. Our aim is not just to host international events, we want to be involved more.”

“We want to have engineers, we want to have mechanics, we want to build cars, we want to be creative. It’s still a long way ahead but hopefully by 2030, 2035, 2040 we can achieve our goals.”

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In light of the aforementioned, do you believe that Formula 1 will allow any other team into the sport before Andretti?