Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed he is involved in a project with American investors to evaluate entering an 11th team in Formula 1.
Szafnauer has been out of a full-time role in F1 since he was dropped by the Alpine squad at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix.
But, having had huge experience in F1 through his involvement with the BAR, Honda, Force India and finally Alpine teams, he is evaluating fresh opportunities to return to grand prix racing once his period of gardening leave ends.
In the meantime, he has been working on a new itinerary management app, called EventR, which is being used in F1 and other motor racing series.
Speaking in the latest James Allen on F1 podcast, which was released on Tuesday, Szafnauer spoke at length about his ambitions – and revealed that there is an all-new project that has its sights set on a move into grand prix racing.
“I’m a competitor and the one thing that I like more than anything is the competition,” said Szafnauer.
“So, to come back in a role where I can’t influence how well the team is competing, I don’t think I’d be interested.
“If it was a role where I could help develop, build, attract the right people to improve a team’s competitiveness, I’d be interested.
“But you know, there’s only 10 teams. A lot of them have people in those roles already. So, I don’t know how many opportunities there are out there, but there’s also the 11th and 12th team possibility. So that might be something that would be interesting for me.
“I’ve been working with some organisations in North America that have the funding to start an 11th team.
“It’s not Andretti. Now we’re just putting some of those building blocks in place to make sure that we have everything that’s required in order to be successful to both start a team, but also get an entry. So, you know, that’s interesting too.”
The possible expansion of the F1 grid to 11 teams has been a controversial topic over the past year, with the FIA having elected to open up the selection process.
But despite putting forward the Andretti Global entry as a viable project, the American outfit’s hopes were dashed when F1 owner Liberty Media rejected its application as it did not believe an extra team would add value to the championship.
Andretti is continuing to push on with its project, as work on its 2026 car continues at its new Silverstone factory, but it is unclear how it will be able to convince F1 to change its mind.
It is unclear who the American investors Szafnauer is linked to are, but F1 is undergoing a huge boom of interest in the country.
Szafnauer’s involvement in the project would be a boost because he fully understands the dynamics of how F1’s paddock politics work – with some suggesting that Andretti has not helped its cause by being so vocal about the way it has been treated.
