The next manufacturer to study a Formula 1 entry will not be European, and may not be American. According to fresh paddock reporting from DailyFuelUp, BYD — the Shenzhen-based EV manufacturer that overtook Tesla as the world's largest electric vehicle producer in 2024 — is weighing a project to put the Chinese brand on the F1 grid.
The pitch attributed to BYD vice-president Stella Li is that competing in F1 would let the company test its powertrain and energy management technology against the best in the world. That is the same R&D framing Audi used to justify its 2026 entry, and the same logic Honda has historically cited for its returns to the sport.
There are two ways in, and both come with friction.
The first is building a team from scratch — the route Cadillac has just spent two years executing, leaning at one point on US Congress-level political pressure to force a gate open over the objection of existing teams. DailyFuelUp puts the all-in cost of standing up an F1 operation at around $500 million per season, and notes that any new entrant has to either commission an engine programme of its own or buy a customer supply from an existing manufacturer. Cadillac's solution was a Ferrari customer deal until GM's own engine is ready.
The second route is the one being whispered about more loudly in the paddock: a buyout of Aston Martin. Lawrence Stroll's team is having its worst season since the rebrand, with the AMR26 routinely qualifying outside the top ten and Adrian Newey's first 2026 design unable to extract performance from the new ground-effect-meets-active-aero regulations. The FIA has just signed off on an extra ten percent ADUO dyno allocation and a $19 million funding lifeline for the team — effectively an admission from rival manufacturers that they cannot afford to let Honda's first works engine project collapse the way McLaren-Honda did a decade ago.
For BYD, an Aston buyout would mean walking into a fully-licensed team with a Honda works engine deal already attached — the same shortcut the Stroll family used to acquire the old Force India team in 2018. The reputational risk is the trade-off: buying into a team currently slower than several F2 cars in qualifying is not the entry narrative a brand-conscious EV company would normally choose.
DailyFuelUp also noted that Li's comments about benchmarking BYD technology against the F1 grid stopped short of confirming a binding plan. The wording, per the report, kept both the constructor and acquisition routes on the table. There has been no formal confirmation from BYD's corporate communications team and no entry filing with the FIA.
What the rumour does confirm is that the next wave of F1 manufacturer interest is squarely Chinese. The grid has already added Audi for 2026, Cadillac for 2026, Honda back as a works supplier through Aston Martin, and Ford as Red Bull's powertrain partner. A Chinese OEM entering — whether through the front door as a constructor or through Aston's back door as an owner — would close one of the last major automotive markets still missing from the F1 manufacturer board.
