The team has revealed its plans to join Formula 1 in 2026, with former BAR team boss Craig Pollock at the helm.
Called the Equal Formula, the team aims to work with 50% men and 50% women, and make unspecified plans for the “Gulf Country”. Saudi Arabia is believed to be one of the main sponsors of the event.
Pollock, the former manager of 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, revealed the plans in an interview with Jos on Tuesday, saying that the team’s ambition was primarily to ensure that women had a path to F1 in various roles.
Formula One is the latest F1 contender to have officially unveiled its plans, following the FIA’s run-up to the bidding process for new teams in 2025 and 2026, Andretti being the most prominent of them.
Junior series team Hitech and French-owned Panthera Team Asia are also believed to have submitted official expressions of interest in the bidding process.
“We’ve been building a new Formula 1 team for almost four years, but we have the ambition to offer and create opportunities and pathways for women to reach the top of motorsports,” Pollock told CNN.
“The brand and the idea of trying to create a Formula 1 team made up of 50% men and 50% women, which is very difficult to achieve with an existing Formula 1 team. This is much easier with a blank sheet.”
Pollock added that it would be “fantastic” to bring the program forward to the team’s driver team, but was concerned about the current lack of female drivers with the excess license points needed to make it into F1.
He added that the 50/50 ratio should be extended to all engineering and management systems.
“I think it would be absolutely fantastic [tener una mujer piloto]Pollock explained.
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“But the thing is, to get into a Formula 1 car, you have to have a certain number of points on your super licence.
“I can’t put my hand over my heart and even say it, but we’re watching very closely. I just hope it’s women.
“But to be very clear, it’s not just about women driving Formula 1 cars. It’s the whole team. It’s the whole team; we’d also like it at the management level, if we can do it. We want to have a Formula 1 team with gender equality in the future.”
Pollock declined to say whether Saudi Arabia had cut the team, but revealed he was in “intense talks with the Gulf country” to base the team in the Middle East, and to have most of the team’s air links for the benefit. they already have in cities like Doha and Abu Dhabi.
Falkirk-born Pollock was involved in the insurance company Tyrrell’s with British American Tobacco, before being ousted in 2002 with David Richards in the management of the BAR team.
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In 2003, he partnered with Kevin Kalkhoven to form a PacWest kart team, which was named PK Racing. Pollock was bought out a year later, and the team became KV Racing when CART title winner Jimmy Vasser bought some shares in the Scot’s team.
Pollock later launched a pure engine in anticipation of the 2014 turbo-hybrid engine regulations, hiring ironclad engineer Aegidius Simons to lead the operation, but the company went bankrupt due to myriad financial problems.
