'I would love LKYSUNZ to bring the first female F1 driver' LKYSUNZ interview: The Spark Motorsport needs
By Ryan Brolly
Recently I have had the opportunity to sit down with two members of LKYSUNZ (pronounced Lucky Suns) Motorsport. LKYSUNZ are a project that are going to be based in South East Asia and aim to disrupt the status quo of international motor racing with their new approach of focusing on Asia and Africa for creative and technical talent which differs from traditional teams who remain Eurocentric in their approach. I got to speak with LKYSUNZ Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Pyrah and Chief Brand Officer Steve Price. Here we spoke about many topics such as their mission within motorsport, what series they are looking at and which venues they would like to see Formula One visit alongside much more.
Beginning I asked what is the mission of LKYSUNZ?:
“Essentially LKYSUNZ exists to give 80% of the world something they can cheer on and provide people with opportunities to have careers in motorsport”
“Our aim was to build a facility in South East Asia to create opportunities for local people to come work,” Andrew Pyrah said.
The initial aim of the team was to enter Formula One as the governing body the FIA opened the process to add an eleventh team to the grid which eventually went to Andretti Cadillac F1, Andrew Pyrah explained that LKYSUNZ will “change tact to focus on purchasing an existing team”. This will slow down their mission on moving to South East Asia given the frameworks in place they will have to deal with.
“LKYSUNZ will be looking to embed their message in an existing team… they want to disrupt legacy thinking with LKYSUNZ” added Price.
To follow this I posed the question that if Formula One was an avenue that does not materialise for LKYSUNZ will they be looking toward series like Formula E, the World Endurance Championship or even MotoGP?
“Other series were always on the cards… Once the F1 team was in place the strategy was always to bring other teams into the structure, Formula E, World Endurance Championships” mentioned Pyrah.
Steve Price mentioned MotoGP saying it was a “no brainer” when being asked would LKYSUNZ join that series online.
“To be candid there are discussions around Formula E while discussions go along with Formula One, there are also discussions with the World Endurance Championships, those three series mean different opportunities for different people… If Formula One does not happen LKYSUNZ will be in other forms of motorsports” Pyrah added.
LKYSUNZ prioritises diversity and progression within motorsport so I asked a question around emission targets, LKYSUNZ aims to have Net Zero emissions by 2028, how do you see motorsport trying to develop in this way to remain viable as the climate crisis worsens?
Price explained to me; “Formula One is working on and will deliver sustainable hybrid fuel by 2026, Extreme Formula E will become Extreme Formula H” alongside this the “World Endurance Championship will have their first Hydrogen class”
“There is a lot going on to ensure it has longevity and it could have happened twenty years ago as Honda’s first Hydrogen car was built for testing”
“When putting our bid together we have sustainability partners… LKYSUNZ strategy will be… looking at everything we do, where we can improve and constantly reduce our footprint”
Continuing with the theme of diversity I asked would there be a prioritising of women’s racing within LKYSUNZ?
“It would be amazing to have a female racing driver in the team, we’ll have to look at when that can be a reality with the super licence points”
“We have got great companies like More Than Equal set up and that is really good, really important and really powerful which has backing from people in F1 like David Coulthard and Kate Beavan.. If anyone can deliver this Kate can.”
“What opportunities can we create to elevate a female so they can end up racing an F1 car in the championship?” Pyrah said.
Price explained his view on the barriers of women in motorsport; “It's systematic, last week we had Christy (@singyuinchristy) , a real racing enthusiast and real racing car driver.. Running our socials who wrote a lot of pieces about the disparity that face young girls and women trying to get into motorsport.”
“I would love LKYSUNZ to bring the first female F1 driver equally. It goes top down. We should look at having a female team principal”
To end off the interview I asked the two LKYSUNZ members which venues from Asia and Africa they would like to see added to the Formula One grid?
“I’m looking forward to seeing the Shanghai International Circuit… I was always a fan of the Sepang circuit.”
“Africa has been ignored by F1 for 30 years but there are rumbling of various circuits in other countries like Kenya… there is so much opportunity in those two continents alone particularly Africa for there to be at least one race” Price said.
Andrew Pyrah added; “I’d love to see a Grand Prix in Nigeria… from an atmospheric point of view that would be insane as that epitomises LKYSUNZ. We just want to create that wild atmosphere,”
Ryan Brolly is a History and International Relations student at Queen’s University Belfast and is Sport Editor at The Scoop