Will Van Amersfoort Racing eventually become the twelfth team in Formula 1? It just might, if it’s up to the new CEO and Managing Partner Otmar Szafnauer. “Who knows,” he says in an exclusive interview with FORMULE 1 Magazine.
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We go back to mid-2025. That Cadillac would enter Formula 1 as the eleventh team this season was already crystal clear for some time. But a possible twelfth team? Yes, even that was already being philosophized about. Namely by Szafnauer, who at the time indicated that he was talking about the possibilities with a consortium of investors. One of those investors: Rafael Villagómez senior, also involved with Van Amersfoort Racing in that capacity.
“Should Formula 1 indeed want to admit a twelfth team, that is still something I want to seriously look into,” says the Romanian American, CEO and Managing Partner of Van Amersfoort for several months, when asked in the latest edition of FORMULE 1 Magazine. “The financial possibilities, the connections; it’s all still there. So, should the opportunity arise in the long term, I will certainly look into a possible entry.”
Extra interesting
That is extra interesting from a Dutch motorsport perspective. Given the roles of Villagómez and Szafnauer at Van Amersfoort Racing, the question suddenly arises whether this iconic racing stable might end up in Formula 1. Szafnauer doesn’t want to go that far, but he understands the suggestion. “Could this team then automatically become the twelfth F1 team? Who knows, maybe.”
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He continues: “At the moment, it’s nothing more than something that might happen someday. But maybe it’s not Van Amersfoort Racing as such, maybe it’s another name. In any case, one does not exclude the other.”
The full interview with Otmar Szafnauer can be read in the latest edition of FORMULE 1 Magazine! Get it now in stores or order it online below, with free delivery throughout the Netherlands.
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