Former British American Racing (BAR) founder Craig Pollock has confirmed he’s trying to enter Components One with a 50 p.c male, 50 p.c feminine crew referred to as Components Equal.
Pollock has submitted an expression of curiosity to racing’s governing physique, the FIA, who opened up the method for locating an eleventh F1 crew earlier this 12 months.
“Our ambition to ship and construct alternatives and pathways for girls to get to the very high stage inside motorsports,” Pollock instructed CNN Sport. “The idea and the concept was to try to construct a Components 1 crew, 50 p.c male, 50 p.c feminine, which is extraordinarily laborious to do you probably have an current Components One crew; it is quite a bit simpler with a clear sheet of paper.”
Pollock’s BAR crew raced in F1 between 1999 and 2005, earlier than being bought by Honda, which grew to become the well-known Brawn GP crew in 2009 after which Mercedes from 2010 onwards.
Pollock hopes to incorporate a feminine driver within the line-up of his new enterprise, though he admits there are points with doing that within the subsequent few years.
“We all know that we’re going to should undergo our academy techniques. We all know we will should construct it up as a result of there should not sufficient ladies in the intervening time who’re educated as much as the extent of Components One and so they’ve received to earn a spot in there on the similar time”.
This 12 months Components One will launch its F1 Academy, a championship collection primarily for teenage ladies trying to begin their journey up the pyramid. The collection will likely be carefully affiliated with groups who make up the grid of the Components 3 and Components 2 feeder collection, which F1 hopes will present a clearer pathway to the highest.
Components Equal hopes to be “the primary Components One crew that’s really exterior of Europe”, with Pollock revealing that funding discussions have taken place with a Gulf state.
Saudi Arabia Motorsport Firm chairman HRH Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal mentioned in the course of the latest Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that the nation hopes to have its personal race crew sooner or later.
There have been a couple of notable expressions of curiosity about 2026. The bid which gained probably the most media protection was the joint Andretti-Cadillac bid, though that was met with a lukewarm response from F1’s current 10 groups, who would nonetheless have to log off any potential eleventh entry.
There are lingering considerations over including a brand new crew into the combo and diluting the prize fund for the groups at a time when F1 is having fun with an unprecedented recognition growth.