FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has said he met the head of Geely in China and that the carmaker was among those that told him they wanted to join Formula 1, an account Geely has not confirmed and that he did not repeat when asked about the company this week.
“I met with the boss, with the president, in China when I was there for Formula 1,” Ben Sulayem told Xinhua in October, when asked about Geely. He did not name the executive or say whether a proposal to enter the championship was discussed. Formula 1 raced in Shanghai in March.
He had first named the company a month earlier. At a business forum in Madrid on September 11, he said manufacturers had come to him wanting to join and identified two of them as Geely and BYD, according to The Race.
The organizer’s written account of that speech names only BYD.
Asked about both carmakers by name in an interview with The National published on Monday, he mentioned neither. “A major Chinese manufacturer would bring new technology, investment and access to an important automotive market,” he said. “The decision on a 12th team must always be based on the quality of the proposal.”
Geely has made no public statement on Formula 1, and its most advanced move into top-level racing has collapsed since Ben Sulayem first named it.
Geely’s Endurance Deal Falls Through
Geely had been negotiating to take over the Hypercar program that Alpine is leaving in the World Endurance Championship, the series that includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“You have to ask Geely. We were ready,” Philippe Sinault, Team Principal of Signatech, which runs the cars, said in remarks published by Motorsport on Monday. “Geely’s decision is Geely’s decision.”
Sinault said he was still seeking a way to keep the team in the category next year.
Geely entered the FIA TCR World Tour, a touring car series, under its own name this year through its partner Cyan Racing, according to Xinhua.
Geely’s Links to Formula 1
Geely has no team or engine program in Formula 1. Its ties are indirect.
Geely Holding Chairman Li Shufu holds 9.69% of Mercedes-Benz Group through an investment vehicle, according to the German carmaker’s shareholder disclosure as of June 30. Mercedes-Benz is a part owner of the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
Zhou Guanyu, the only Chinese driver to have raced in Formula 1 and a Geely ambassador, said in June 2024 that the group still had “a high interest around motorsports, on Formula 1 in general.” Zhou is a reserve driver this year for Cadillac.
What He Said in Madrid
Most of what Ben Sulayem described in Madrid concerned BYD, not Geely. The FIA could open the way for a 12th team, he said, but “we don’t need a team, we need the team,” and “the team has to come from China.”
He said he had suggested that BYD start by taking over an existing team and that BYD wanted its own. His answer, he said, was to “come back with a serious offer” that showed the plan would work. He gave no comparable detail about Geely.
He also said the sport’s commercial promoter agreed on the need for a manufacturer team, according to the organizer’s account. Formula 1 has not said so itself.
The FIA would “open the expression of interest if you are coming,” he told the forum, and the rules would not be changed for Chinese manufacturers.
By October he had widened the options. “If they come in and take another team, I’ll be more than happy,” he told Xinhuabefore the Singapore Grand Prix. “It doesn’t mean we will have a 12th team.”
That is the route Audi took when it bought Sauber and entered this year, and the one Ben Sulayem said BYD had turned down.
BYD Says There Is No Project
BYD is the better documented of the two, and its own statements have grown more guarded. Bloomberg reported in March that the company was weighing an entry into Formula 1 or endurance racing, with no decision made.
In May the Financial Times reported that Executive Vice President Stella Li had met former Red Bull team boss Christian Horner in Cannes to discuss an entry. BYD, Horner, Formula 1 and the FIA all declined to comment to the newspaper.
By July, Li was saying there was “no project” and no concrete agenda. She was speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as quoted by Spanish outlet SoyMotor.
Formula 1’s Position
Formula 1’s own executives addressed the question in September. Liam Parker, Formula 1’s Chief Communications and Corporate Relations Officer, told City AM that a 12th team next season was “pretty impossible.”
Parker said the question was “a matter for us and the FIA,” and that an offer from a major brand that helped the sport grow in strategic markets would be looked at seriously.
Chief Executive Officer Stefano Domenicali told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera the same week that there was no room for another team in the medium term.
The last entry process shows how long the path can be. The FIA opened it in February 2023, received seven expressions of interest and approved one applicant that October, according to its own account. Formula 1 rejected that bid in January 2024.
It reached the grid only after General Motors took the lead. The Cadillac entry was approved in March 2025 and began racing this year as the 11th team.
The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai is contracted through 2030, and Formula 1 put its fanbase in China at more than 150 million when it announced the extension.
The FIA will hold its annual awards in Shanghai on December 12, the first time China has hosted the ceremony.
