BYD plots joining Formula 1 to compete with Ferrari, MacLaren, report says

That wasn't on my bingo card for manufacturers join F1 but I'll take it

Formula 1 is 50% electric since this season. It's no longer sufficient to be an expert on ICEs.

If they don't take you seriously then just seriously take their stuff. >The Chinese EV and battery giant aims to increase brand awareness worldwide as it expands its global sales.

will they call it yangwang as that is their fastest car brand.

False. F1 batteries are limited to 1.1kWh. These cars are hybrids, 99% of energy used to move the vehicle comes from fossil fuels.

Unless they buy an existing team like Alpine or Haas I’m not sure they would really join beyond being a branding partner. Going the Cadillac / GM way is really expensive. It requires a lot of headhunting and huge investments. Also because of cost caps the teams you build have to be small (compared to car company). The BYD strategy of hiring just more engineers isn’t going to work. The comment from the article that BYD could use technology from their sports car really shows that the writer has no idea about Formula 1.

>F1 cars have used a hybrid drivetrain for more than a decade. In 2026, the Formula 1 season introduced major changes to the sport’s power unit regulations, significantly increasing the role of electric power – F1 is now basically 50% EV.

Source: The author's ass. That quote does appear in the article but it has no supporting evidence.

I'd be very surprised if they went into F1 as a new entrant, or even as a full manufacturer/engine supplier. BYD are big, but the money required to build a team from scratch is enormous, and continuous - it's the manufacturer equivalent of buying a yacht, and it's basically expected that you'll fail for years before building up the development and talent pool to compete. It's not simply a case of "their car batteries have good charging speed so they'll be competitive in F1". Buying an existing team and just running it is a more likely option - F1 is mostly PR rather than expertise these days, but I could see BYD in something like WEC earlier than F1 if they wanted to get into motorsport, and it would be more road-relevant as well.

While the batteries are small, about half of the peak power output (about 1000bhp) comes from the battery. So when the battery runs empty going down a straight, the car is significantly down on power until it can recharge the battery under braking. Also, the use of fossil fuels is completely banned under the new rules. Synthetic fuels are now used and must come from sustainable sources, with food waste also being banned from use as such a source.

> These cars are hybrids, 99% of energy used to move the vehicle comes from fossil fuels. The quote does appear on reddit but it also has no supporting evidence. You vastly underestimate how few people know or care about F1.

Having a Chinese F1 team would be a point of pride for the Chinese owners though.

It would be, but it's a very expensive way to do it.

Pretty sure the fact they’re limited to 1.1kwh battery is evidence most of the energy is coming from fossil fuels. Unless they’ve figured out how to travel 100 miles per kWh. In which case I want my EV to have 8,500 miles of range when driving at top speed.

How sure... https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/from-smaller-cars-to-a-bigger-budget-cap-12-rule-changes-you-need-to-know-in.56uUTFhB0z5j3iZfhC0rGP >Gone is the MGU-H – a complex and heavy motor – and the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) now has a reduced power output of around 400kW. However, the MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) remains and is more powerful, with the electrical energy output increasing from 120kW to 350kW, to make for a roughly 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power.

You should learn the difference between energy and power… Like this is embarrassing dude.

>Like this is embarrassing dude. Yes. It is. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/from-smaller-cars-to-a-bigger-budget-cap-12-rule-changes-you-need-to-know-in.56uUTFhB0z5j3iZfhC0rGP

Yikes dude.

i want an f1 car that sounds like a dong

They don't plug them in. 100% of the energy comes from the fuel even if some of the time up to 50% of the power does. The fuel is theoretically synthetic but they granted some exceptions and have been really really quiet about it since.

You probably should have stopped being so confidently wrong a few posts ago. They cannot plug them in, I don't think they're even allowed to charge them in the garage. All of the energy comes from the fuel.

I think they could go their own way. F1 would love a Chinese team and the marketing in that gives them in China. They loved Cadillac straight away, the only troubles with that deal appeared to be a (deserved or otherwise) hatred of Michael Andretti. I'm just not sure if it would be worth it for BYD, as you say it would be astronomically expensive. They don't really have a glorious history of combustion vehicles and their future is ever more EV so I don't see the marketing link.

All legacy survive the cost. Look at BMW, Ferrari. One massive and one boutique. Not to say Toyota in budget market.

Oh dear. Let’s start with the basics. https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2026_formula_1_technical_regulations_pu_-_issue_2_-_2023-03-03.pdf Page 14 clause 5.4.6, 5.4.8 and 5.4.9 The electrical DC power of the ERS-K must not exceed 350kW. The difference between maximum and minimum state of charge must be no more than 4MJ at any time on track. The maximum recovery per lap must not exceed 9MJ. So to put these into common EV numbers. 4MJ = 1.1kWh 9MJ = 2.5kWh So this means the battery is 1.1kWh and amount of battery energy that can be used per lap is 2.5kWh. The electric motor can deploy upto 350kW. There is a defined formula for the maximum deployment power as a function of speed capped at 340kph where deployment cannot exceed 150kW. So as a question to the audience how many seconds of deployment is possible per lap… *hint* it’s way less than 50% of a typical full lap on throttle time.

Saying that 100% of the energy comes from fuel is just being pedantic at this point. There are several variations of EV: * Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) no combustion * Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) combustion with battery assist (often times only battery at low speeds) * Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) short BEV only range with combustion engine and regular transmission * Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) All battery power but a combustion engine is basically the generator to charge the battery, it runs at a set RPM and doesn’t have a transmission. — Formula 1 falls under HEV.

Final lap and the Wang is in da lead.

There’s the Ferrari / Mercedes strategy of shifting “part-time” engineers but to the main factory to work on their bicycles

The cost of operating a F1 team is estimatd to be $500M a year as there are budget caps now, that's probably 10—20% of what byd is already spending on ads. Also as stated it could probably help boost domestic sales that is declining fast.

It's not a question of surviving it, it's a question of whether it's worth it. I've no doubt BYD could set a massive pile of RMB on fire in the street and survive it, but that doesn't make it worthwhile.

The bloomberg article notes that cost, but also the problems with accepting that as an additional, ongoing expenditure for a team that, realistically, will occupy the last row of the grid at least initially. There's usually a commitment required that a team will remain in the sport beyond a certain timeframe - they don't want churn in and out. Bear in mind, that's the operational cost. That's not all the additional R&D spend needed to support it in the first place, or headhunting costs to actually bring talent into the organisation that would be capable of results. Buidling their own engines to spec is a whole mountain of R&D that again, needs to be built from scratch. If BYD are intending to show their drivetrain credentials, buying engines from Honda probably isn't the look they're going for. the question is whether that actually provides any sort of return vs the opportunity cost of not being able to spend that massive capital elswhere, or will it make them look like an also-ran on the world stage who can't compete with legacy players. This isn't really something that you can dip your toes in for a couple of years - if BYD *doesn't* see their domestic sales turn around, they're likely still stuck throwing 500 million into their F1 team each year - which is why it's not as simple as "they have the money so it's an easy decision".

I don't actually think BYD could survive the cash burn. Suppliers are apparently on 12-month terms, Geely is eating their car business in China and CATL would quickly crush their battery business if they slowed their R&D spend. The Chinese car industry is just too volatile for any player to dump cash into something that doesn't directly improve their product.

Gotta give it to Biyaaadiii as the ballsiest automaket possibly in history. From making utter shitboxes in its early years to 3.3 ton luxury family SUVs that can go up Beer-O-Clock hill in stock trim, 3000hp hypercars, to your everyday boring looking salaryman sedans, with 1100bhp and 5 mins ultra fast charging. If I were them, I’d focus on Lemans 24hours. I think one of their core strengths, their PHEV powertrain technology (DM-O, DM-P, DM-I, PHEV E3 and E4), could be useful for that kind of scenario. It’s insane how they manage performance/fuel economy from a relatively modest 1.5 or 2.0 engine. Check out the Yangwang U7, which maintains high battery SOC for its quad motors at very high speeds from a 2.0 boxer engine. BYD has a significant technological advantage in this tech on the consumer market. The only other competitor, as far as ultra-high performance PHEVs are concerned are Geely.  I think they can take it much further in a place like Le-mans 24h, where you need both horsepower, endurance and range PS: I mention PHEV because I don’t really see BEVs being all that successful at Le mans 24hours yet. I mention Le Mans because that’s where most of the trickle-down technology (to consumer-grade cars) occurs. Toyota actually used le-mans to improve the reliability of their consumer market cars!

And the winner slaps his Wang all over the competitors faces! And now he's rubbing it in! Oh no! Now he's rubbing one out on the podium!

And the winner slaps his Yang Wang all over the competitors faces! And now he's rubbing it in! Oh no! The DiSus-X Intelligent Body Control System has had a malfunction, now he's rubbing one out on the podium!

valid points, but you have to look at these from a Chinese perspective, where Western perception of scale, budget, resources (supply chain, talent, etc) no longer apply. The industrial scenery here is vastly different, companies like BYD operate completely different, as evident by the insane rate of their product development. From BYD's perspective, they worked out that to be a really compelling global brand, to set them apart from fierce competitors like Geely, they need to get into motorsport. Race on sunday sell on monday and all that

I've been in that car in the picture. It's really freaking cool.

I could executives at BYD or even senior committee members in China going to Horner and say we’ll pay for it you run it.

Aston Martin isn’t doing so great, both their consumer brand and the F1 team. I would be surprised if Lawrence Stroll doesn’t exit this year or next.

Formula E seems a more natural fit for the BYDs and Xiaomis to direct their efforts.

This is a bonkers take. Ferrari are a tiny car company and compete in Formula One at the highest level. BYD dwarf Ferrari and would have essentially state backing. They could easily run a Formula One team. It’s a marketing expense as much as anything.

Net profit in 2025 $10 billion. I think they can afford it.

BYD is essentially the Toyota of the EV world, except Toyota actually had extensive experience competing at the highest levels of rally and prototype racing for years before trying their hand at F1. Take one wild guess at how successful Toyota's decade long foray into F1 went, and how many races they managed to win. If for marketing only, BYD could take on a role as title sponsorfor an existing team, like what Toyota also just decided to do. But they will not be trying to start and run their own team because that will just be setting money on fire.

> It's not a question of surviving it, it's a question of whether it's worth it. > > I've no doubt BYD could set a massive pile of RMB on fire in the street and survive it, but that doesn't make it worthwhile.

> Ferrari are a tiny car company and compete in Formula One at the highest level. Ferrari are a racing team that make road cars to support their racing efforts. They count >1/6 of the other teams on the grid as their customers. There's cachet that comes with being part of the Ferrari team - hell, even the world's best drivers with other teams still often have a dream of driving for Ferrari. BYD are neither of those things. It doesn't mean they can't do it, but it means the priority and return is significantly lower than it is for Ferrari, who are literally the only team to have continuously raced in Formula 1 since it's inception. Comparing BYD to Ferrari is possibly the poorest comparison someone could make by anyone who actually follows the sport.

GM as a whole was less than 3 billion.

Attracting engineering talent is the real purpose of motorsport. Most consumers don't care about professional racing. Even if they fail in races the creativity injected into the company to try and figure out how to win could pay off.