It’s an overused saying, yet still holds true, that the quickest way to gain some wealth in motorsport is to begin with a substantial amount of money.

Among the large number of people who have squandered significant amounts of money pursuing their motorsport aspirations, there exists another group of participants — individuals who think they can achieve success with minimal personal investment.

This week, LFHCK.ID received an email stating the potential comeback of the Caterham brand to the Formula 1 competition.

“We are pleased to announce that Saad Kassis-Mohamed Capital intends to bring back an inactive F1 team onto the track through a fresh entry called SKM Racing, aiming for participation in 2027, pending FIA clearance and collaboration with the commercial rights owner,” stated the email. Considering the
sturm und drang
In light of Cadillac’s attempt to enter Formula 1, past experiences indicate that the last two requirements will likely not be met.

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Saad Kassis-Mohamed, described as a “businessman, financier, and charitable individual” from Kuwait who is leading the initiative, has recently been considered as a possible purchaser of the struggling English League One team Reading. However, the financial involvement did not materialize.

Numerous factors suggest one should be cautious about accepting declarations of new team formations. Below are some examples.

LKY SUNZ (2021/2023)

Benjamin Durand’s intermittent path along the fringes of F1 started in 2019 with his announcement
the creation of Panthera Team Asia
Durand, who had last been at the helm of the SMP Racing LMP2 team in the World Endurance Championship, stated his aim was to enter “using the Haas approach” (meaning relying heavily on pre-existing parts from other teams and vendors within regulatory limits).

The idea was that although Formula One had been seeking growth in the United States after Liberty Media acquired the commercial rights, it hadn’t taken steps to expand its fanbase in Asia. This notion alone wasn’t new: Michael Orts, co-director of Panthera, was also a director of Bronze Fortune Ltd., based in the UK at the same location as Panthera, which generated significant attention during the summer of 2017 when it temporarily changed its name to China F1 Team Racing.

However, despite discussions about recruiting staff and running operations from Silverstone with the aim of obtaining a spot in 2021, Panthera did not even submit an application. Ross Brawn, who was then the managing director of F1, stated
No new applicants will be accepted before 2022 at the earliest
We should draw lessons from history; numerous small groups emerged and disappeared without making a significant impact on Formula 1.

In 2020, Durand made a brief return, stating that he still had staff involved in early design work and the foundation of a contract for an engine supply, yet “we are awaiting developments in F1 before providing further details.”

No further information about the project surfaced until 2023, when it was brought back to life and then subsequently
rebranded as LKY SUNZ
(pronounced “Lucky Suns,” referencing the reverence of the sun in various Asian cultures) after the FIA decided to initiate a bidding process for a new team. The plan now involved establishing an operating base in Asia, focusing on “youth culture,” and placing significant importance on community engagement.

Although the proposal claimed a $1 billion budget, received support from the U.S.-based Legends Sports Advocates Group, and expressed readiness to contribute $600 million to the anti-dilution fund (three times the then-current amount), it was turned down. Reports suggest that the absence of detailed technical and financial information in the submission, as well as the group’s limited experience in sports, were key factors in its rejection.

The organization ceased operations in December 2023.

Stefan GP (2010/2019)

Maybe one of the factors behind F1 Managing Director Ross Brawn’s choice to block new teams from entering at the close of the previous decade stemmed from his encounter with Serbian entrepreneur Zoran Stefanovic over the course of the 2017 Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

There,
Stefanovic revealed his plan to establish an F1 squad
based in Italy.

Prior to arriving in Austria, I had established several crucial agreements,” he said to LFHCK.ID. “I decided that it would be headquartered in Parma, which is situated at a convenient distance from the wind tunnel.

I have also entered into an agreement with an aerodynamics expert to assist with the project.

The individual in focus was reportedly Enrique Scalabroni, an engineer who has worked on notable projects and left his mark on the likes of the
Williams
FW11 and
Ferrari
640.

Numerous sequels closely mirror the storyline of the initial book or film, and Stefanovic’s proposal carried a sense of familiarity. He was one of the applicants who didn’t secure a position on the 2010 grid when Max Mosley revealed that three slots would be open for newcomers following the global financial crisis.

Although faced with this setback, Stefanovic managed to obtain some of the resources from Toyota’s canned F1 initiative and continued forward with his plan to operate a program based in Toyota’s Cologne facility, where development would be overseen by a former Arrows and…
McLaren
Designer Mike Coughlan. You might recall that name — he was the one who had his wife take copies of secret Ferrari schematics to the Woking location of Prontaprint during the summer of 2007.

In February 2010, Stefanovic carried out an unusual and dreamlike phone conversation with LFHCK.ID, which he stated was in discussions with.
Jacques Villeneuve
To drive, it was confirmed that Kazuki Nakajima had already joined the team, and that the Stefan 01 vehicle had been “started up” for the first time in the pit lanes of Cologne. Regarding other significant issues, like whether he would secure a spot in the competition or even receive tires, he remained quite unclear.

At present, we have received a response from Bridgestone stating that they are only providing tires to teams competing in Formula 1,” he mentioned. “However, we remain confident that they might provide GP2 tires.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that this initiative yielded little result, and Stefanović’s comeback to the track in 2017 sparked considerable skepticism.

US F1 (2010)

Confronted by the possibility of manufacturers leaving Formula One as the worldwide economic downturn affected the automotive sector during fall and winter 2008, FIA President Max Mosley introduced several bidding procedures, such as an approved budget-friendly engine unit, along with fresh spots on the track. The selection of successful bidders, revealed over the Le Mans event in 2009, led to significant concern.

Manor Racing and Campos Grand Prix possessed experience in lower-tier motorsport categories, yet how did US F1—headed by ex-Haas CNC (NASCAR) engineering chief Ken Anderson alongside Peter Windsor, a media professional and occasional Williams team boss—manage to outdo proposals from entities such as Prodrive and Lola?

Like always with Mosley, political issues remained close at hand. He and F1 “organizer” Bernie Ecclestone found themselves engaged in a conflict with the eight teams that made up the Formula One Teams Association, which aimed to launch an independent championship series.

The US F1 team reportedly had support from YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and pledged to make its operations more transparent than ever in Formula 1, offering video content that captured all facets of the team’s journey toward competition. The team wasn’t lacking in resources, as it was located in Charlotte, North Carolina—known as ‘Motorsport Valley’ in America.

Shortly after, whispers started circulating that the project was significantly delayed — a perception reinforced by the lack of the expected video content.
GP Racing
The magazine sent an editor to Charlotte during the late summer, who came back confused, noting there wasn’t much worth capturing visually for the planned story, and that Anderson seemed almost unstable, frequently heading off to Starbucks in an unusual manner.

Although there were rumors, the team confirmed Renault reserve driver Jose Maria Lopez, who secured a notable $8 million in sponsorships from Argentina, as one of their drivers for 2010.

In February 2010, just before the season began, LFHCK.ID released an interview featuring a team insider who preferred to stay unidentified. The information shared was remarkable, indicating a major failure in the development procedure — so much so that the vehicle was far from completion, and there were no sponsorships in place.

According to Anderson, they asserted that he required involvement in every detail of the design process, leading to significant delays.

Very few elements of structured planning and written records have existed,” an insider mentioned. “There were no set timelines for production, just minimal levels of preparation.

After reading this, Ecclestone sent over a race car driver he was familiar with—now an esteemed commentator—to check out the facility. He returned reporting that he had seen nothing but a ‘shell’, some wild ideas, and a pile of Starbucks invoices.

Ecclestone quickly informed new FIA boss Jean Todt, who dispatched race director Charlie Whiting—previously the head mechanic at Brabham—to examine the premises. He naturally concluded that US F1 had no future.

It turned out to be insufficient and delayed.

Two weeks ahead of the opening race in Bahrain, after missing the tests, the team stated that it had submitted an application to the FIA requesting a postponement of its participation until 2011. Then, it disappeared without a trace, with Lopez’s $8 million investment lost, and all that remained online were some funny homemade videos mocking the entire mess.

Team Dubai F1 (2006)

In October 2004 a company known as
‘Group Dubai F1’ revealed intentions to join Formula One in 2006
with
Mercedes
McLaren provides engines and technical assistance for a fee of $100 million annually. The team will operate from Dubai.

Heavy doubt met this idea right from the start, considering the different people involved and the situation at the time. Although it seemed to receive some backing from the governing Al Maktoum family—Timothy Fulton, the team ‘spokesperson,’ also served as their representative—the reality was that at least three F1 teams were reportedly available for purchase. So why not acquire one of them?

“Ultimately, we determined that acquiring an established team would never allow us to completely showcase our own dedication and quality, as victory would surely be tied to the pre-existing team’s identity and principles,” said Fulton in the club’s official statement.

However, it was the secondary characters who offered the strongest grounds for skepticism. The press statement was issued by an organization known as the Belgravia Group, which asserted it was consulting with Grand Prix Investments, the entity overseeing the planned team. These two organizations not only used the same official address but also had overlapping staff members: John Byfield and Russell King.

Back then, these people were simply seen as the jesters who had caused chaos.
Jenson Button
He became so involved in the matters that he found himself facing legal action from within his own group. The BAR team manager, David Richards, approached Bernie Ecclestone seeking to cancel King’s license.

Later, Byfield made significant efforts to separate himself from King, and for valid reasons. King, known for his large physique, flashy style of dressing, and the habit of carrying a walking stick, attracted considerable attention within the F1 circuit. He had already been convicted once for fraud beneath his oversized trousers, with further troubles yet to follow.

Although they claimed to have $48 million available to pay the required entry deposit with the FIA, no more information came from Team Dubai F1. When King resurfaced in 2009 as the main figure behind Qadbak, an organization said to be acquiring the BMW team, McLaren’s chief executive Martin Whitmarsh was one of the first to raise concerns.

The global football community did not carry out proper scrutiny, allowing Qadbak to acquire the financially troubled Notts County club for just £1. BMW-Sauber avoided the disaster that occurred elsewhere.

In 2018, after being sent back to Jersey from Bahrain—where he had been residing under an alias—King received a six-year jail term for charges of fraud and theft.

Phoenix/DART Grand Prix (2002)

During many years in the latter part of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, the entries for Grand Prix events became extremely crowded, forcing those left out to compete against each other in an unpleasant preliminary qualifying session held on Friday mornings. Those who failed in this round would often be leaving with their gear well before the actual races started.

Now picture yourself completely excluded from entering the track.

This was the destiny of Phoenix Grand Prix, an under-resourced operation led by Charles Nickerson, a businessperson who previously drove TWR Jaguars alongside Tom Walkinshaw using the nickname “Chuck” Nickerson during the early 1980s. Possibly informed about the chance through the Walkinshaw link, Nickerson obtained parts of the dissolved Prost team in late 2001 through his firm, Phoenix Finance Ltd.

A critical element absent from the collection of parts moved to Walkinshaw’s Arrows team’s Leafield facility was any documentation related to Prost’s Formula One participation.

Phoenix possessed the Prost APO4 vehicles along with the associated intellectual property, but otherwise had almost nothing else. Consequently, when its minimal team arrived for the second race of the 2002 season in Malaysia, they were not allowed into the pit lane. For the opening event of the season, they had sent two front sections to the officials because the former Prost cars had still not reached the factory.

Therefore, according to the FIA, it was considered a new team requiring the submission of the appropriate entrance deposit; Nickerson argued that it was an extension of the Prost squad.

Even though Walkinshaw officially separated himself from the project, this was just an empty gesture because the vehicles were clearly readied at Leafield and the Phoenix team members came from the Arrows testing squad. Additionally, without the Acer-labeled Ferrari engine that previously drove the AP04 models, the Phoenix ‘AP04Bs’ effectively incorporated the gearboxes, suspensions, and TWR-marked Hart V10 engines from the Arrows AX3 triple-seat display vehicle.

A further characteristic of Walkinshaw was his conviction that the team’s participation could remain ‘active’ merely by driving a few laps around the circuit — a strategy he tried shortly after in some races when Arrows began facing financial difficulties.

Nevertheless, being excluded from Sepang kept Gaston Mazzacane and Tomas Enge from driving what was probably a dangerous machine.

An unusual renaming to DART Grand Prix, as the antics unfolded, further enriched the fabric of bewilderment and disorder.

Nickerson pursued the FIA and FOM to the High Court, yet in May, Sir Andrew Morritt — the vice-chancellor of the Supreme Court — dismissed the lawsuit and directed Phoenix, DART, or whichever name it had that day, to cover all expenses.