Exclusive: Prospective F1 team LKY SUNZ expecting FIA update in ‘the coming days’

The CEO of the newly announced LKY SUNZ team told PlanetF1.com they expect an update from the FIA within the next few days.

The Southeastern Asia based team made themselves known on Thursday with an announcement of their application to get on the F1 grid, promising to disrupt the current establishment.

The team has a familiar face behind it with Benjamin Durand, former team principal at another hopeful entrant Panthera, moving across to this new venture.

Speaking exclusively to PlanetF1.com, Durand revealed they submitted their interest to the FIA in January and are expecting an update shortly.

“We sent a letter of interest to the FIA in January,” he said. “So we’re waiting for the FIA to give us the details of the submission of the complete bid, that should be within the coming days now.”

It appears then that the FIA will provide feedback to each bid before ultimately making a decision. Although a late-May date for a decision has been rumoured, Durand says they have had no concrete information and that it is “a moving target.”

“We have had no information at this stage of when the decision will be taken, I think it’s still a moving target.

“We are waiting for them to come back to us with all the elements to know exactly if any changes need to be made.”

Should LKY SUNZ receive the green light from the FIA, that is just one hurdle they will have cleared as they next need to convince the Formula One Management group, an arguably harder task.

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Durand said their communication had been limited to just the FIA at the moment but was open to dialogue with F1 itself.

“We are doing the process as it should be,” the CEO said. “That means that we are applying to the FIA, so we haven’t had official talks [with F1].

“We’ve done some lobbying with F1 so they know about us, they know about what we are doing.

“I know there’s other people that are doing politics and stuff like that and lobbying. I don’t think at this stage politics will [help]. As long as you have a strong bid and it ticks the FIA’s boxes, it’s as simple as that.”