There have been rumours for some days about a possible new Formula 1 racing team being put together with money supposedly coming from China. A little investigation reveals that a British registered company called Bronze Fortune Ltd, which has been in business since 2003, was renamed on May 20th as China F1 Racing Team Ltd. That is all that there really is at the moment, as the only name involved in the company – French lawyer Michael Orts – is clearly only a nominee.

It seems that things have only become public because some recruiting agencies have become involved on behalf of the company and these have been approaching potential recruits at other teams. Clearly they have not been very subtle about it.

As previously explained, to start a new Formula 1 team the first requirement is to secure an entry in the FIA World Championship. These are not given away. The team may submit entry forms from March 1 two years before the date the entry relates to. In other words if one put in an entry form today, it would be for the 2019 season. The application would then be considered and the FIA would decide on an entry based on the new team being able to demonstrate that it is able to meet its financial and other obligations, that it is headed by a fit and proper person and that it would not bring F1 into disrepute. It would be unwise for a new team to start recruiting staff before securing an entry but the FIA has not announced any such application. In the past the FIA has indicated if there were any applications being considered.

Starting a new team is not really the best way forward because of the fact that new teams have limited access to prize money for the first three seasons in F1. This means that they must be self-supporting before being able to budget for prize money. It is better to buy an existing team, even if the money required up-front would be more.