{"id":25234,"date":"2025-04-16T16:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/25234\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:46:08","slug":"huge-saudi-arabian-f1-team-takeover-could-happen-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/25234\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Saudi Arabian F1 team takeover \u2018could happen soon\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the eve of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the chairman of the country\u2019s motorsports federation has suggested it is only a matter of time before the Middle East country \u201cbuys\u201d a Formula 1 team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia joined the Formula 1 calendar in 2021, the same year Qatar made its debut, and this season the Jeddah Corniche circuit<\/a> will play host to round five of the F1 2025 championship.<\/p>\n

Could Saudi Arabia buy one of the existing F1 teams?<\/p>\n

It is one of four Middle East countries that today have a permanent position on the Formula 1 calendar, but unlike Bahrain, they don\u2019t own a Formula 1 team.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Mumtalakat, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, took full ownership of the McLaren Group, including the Formula 1 team.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia could follow suit depending on the viability of owning a Formula 1 team, after all, \u201cnobody dislikes making money\u201d.<\/p>\n

More on the Formula 1 teams headquarters and engines<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 team principals: How long has each team boss been in charge?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 team HQs: Where each team is based and plan major upgrades<\/a><\/p>\n

However, buying a Formula 1 team would cost Saudi Arabia a pretty penny as it\u2019s been estimated the every team, even those at the back of the grid, are worth at least \u00a31 billion. And none of the teams\u2019 owners seem keen to sell at this moment in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it could happen,\u201d Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal said as per Racer<\/a>. \u201cIt could happen soon if you see the growth, first of all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to buy a Formula 1 team, then people will buy it to make money out of it, especially if it\u2019s going to be bought by one of the PIF (Public Investment Fund) companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we see there is a lot of [growth], now Formula 1 is reaching new markets, the sales are globally increasing. We saw the partnership with Aramco and Aston Martin. So, all directions say that maybe soon Saudi can, if they see if it\u2019s feasible, if it makes sense, then why not?<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody dislikes making money, so if you can make money out of Formula 1, but I think it\u2019s very tricky. You need to know exactly which team to buy and who to partner with and who will manage this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult because you see Formula 1 became very competitive and there\u2019s a lot of changes in the regulations. We saw [the change that] is going to come in 2026 and the talks about Formula 1 going back to the V10 engines \u2013 naturally-aspirated engines \u2013 so the decision is very difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to say which team to buy and how you\u2019re going to manage it. But we have a lot of interest. They\u2019re sponsoring, we\u2019re hosting a Formula 1 race, we\u2019re sponsoring teams, so I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we see an announcement for a Saudi team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd personally, I would like to see a Saudi team, but if Saudi Arabia, or one of the Saudi companies will be involved in one of the teams, I would like them to do it the right way and be successful. So it\u2019s a tricky question, but why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

That, however, is not Prince Khalid\u2019s only goal.<\/p>\n

Despite F1 chief Stefano Domenicali\u2019s recent admission that it is \u201cincreasingly difficult to have two races in the same country because interest in Formula 1 is growing\u201d, Prince Khali would like to see the Qiddiya circuit in Riyadh also join the calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaudi Arabia as a country, we would like to host two races,\u201d he said. \u201cJeddah and Riyadh, they are two different regions and two different markets. And Saudi Arabia, it\u2019s a very big market. But is it feasible? And can we do two races given the complicated calendar?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we have a market for it in Saudi Arabia, but it\u2019s something that we haven\u2019t thought about. Let\u2019s see what the demand will be when we move to Riyadh and maybe discuss it once we move to Riyadh and see if we can still maintain to have two races, which I really doubt that\u2026 All the teams, everybody\u2019s complaining about [the number of races], and we have already four races in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, personally, I would like to see two races in Saudi. We know that the United States have three races after Las Vegas was introduced. Saudi Arabia is a very big country. I mean, it can happen, but will it happen? It\u2019s too early to discuss this now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Start times, schedule and how to watch<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the eve of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the chairman of the country\u2019s motorsports federation has suggested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-25234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114348660043716017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}