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By Saajan Jogia
Sports Contributing Writer
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Having parted ways with Formula One in 2014, three seasons after its arrival on the grid in 2012, Caterham plans to return to the premier class of motorsport in 2027. This has been confirmed by SKM Capital, which plans to enter F1 as SKM Racing with Caterham.
The company's board director, 24-year-old Saad Kassis-Mohamed, is eager to get racing with Caterham by making SKM a customer team. He revealed two approaches that his squad could adopt to enter F1: One is to take over an existing team. The second approach would be to apply to the FIA and Formula One Management (FOM) to enter as the sport's 12th team, a path chosen by the Cadillac F1 team.
With F1 becoming an investor's hotspot due to clear guidelines in place, such as the budget cap, which prevents big teams from having a considerable financial advantage, the Kuwaiti investor revealed his plans to pitch his team in F1. He told Sportstar:
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"F1 now operates with clearer financial guardrails and stable technical frameworks, making the category investable. We like the intersection of elite engineering, a global platform, and predictable cost governance.
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"Caterham has strong recall and no current grid presence. A brand licence shortens the marketing ramp without reviving the defunct corporate entity or its liabilities, outlining the reason for not marketing the team as a new entry.
"We respect the thresholds set by FIA/ F1. Our plan involves two options: a change of control transaction in an existing entrant or applying in the next FIA process as a compact, well-funded customer team with long-term PU supply."
Caterham failed to score a single point during its previous F1 stint between 2012 and 2014, forcing it into administration. Failing to find new investors for the following season, the team ended its operations, and all its assets were auctioned in March 2015.
The easier path to enter F1 would be for SKM to take over an existing team rather than enter as an independent outfit, especially since it has no backing of a key Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). If approved, the team will have a race operations unit in Munich, while its technical headquarters will be located at Silverstone.
Despite the short timeframe to prepare for an F1 entry in 2027, Kassis-Mohamed is confident that he will be able to set up the required infrastructure and the leadership group before the end of this year. However, that will be entirely dependent on whether or not he receives approval to race in F1.
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