Lo has high hopes of a new F1 team

BILLIONAIRE Hong Kong businessman Calvin Lo has said he is looking into the possibility of launching a Formula One team in time to race in 2026.

Lo, chief executive of insurance broker RE Lee International, said he was assessing the requirements with the aim of making a decision in the next two months.

“Based on what I’m seeing right now, it’s highly aspirational, but it seems like it can be done if all the stars are aligned,” Lo said.

“Based on the timelines, the sooner the better, right? It seems even now is a very tight timeline just to put something on the grid by 2026.”

The 46-year-old, who has a personal net worth estimated at £1.386bn, said he would not take an active role in running the team, with his ambitions in the sport “purely financial”.

“It’s how long you can sustain it,” he said. “In this world, finding liquidity for one or two years, relatively it’s easy. But can you last for three, five years? That’s the part that the crunching of the numbers comes in.”

Lo would face several major hurdles before getting a car onto the grid. Any new team must pay £163.1m in compensation to the existing teams for the loss of income caused. He would also need to convince F1 his team could become competitive – something that has so far stopped American racers Mario and Michael Andretti getting the go-ahead for their own plans.

As such, it is possible Lo will instead invest in an existing team: “I have no idea how the intricacies of the F1 world are.

“Maybe it’s easier just to invest in a current team. The foundation is set, it is already up and running.”