Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Top junior single-seater team Hitech GP has publicly confirmed it plans to enter Formula 1 in 2026, as well as announce a significant new investment update.
The team, founded in 2015 by former GP3 racer Oliver Oakes and taking on the ‘Hitech’ name previously used by Formula 3 teams in Brazil and Europe, currently races in Formula 2, the FIA F3 Championship, Formula Regional Middle East, GB3 and the British and United Arab Emirates Formula 4 championships.
In 2019 the Silverstone-based team ran all the cars in the inaugural W Series season, and since then has done the same for the FIA Motorsport Games F4 Cup through its sister Hitech Technologies company. That also now provides technical support for other teams, such as to GB3 rival Hillspeed.
Hitech Global Holdings, the owning company of Hitech GP, announced today that it had “agreed the sale of a 25% interest in the group to Kazakh businessman and motorsport enthusiast Vladimir Kim”, a billionaire who made his wealth in mining.
Kim is not new to investing his wealth in sport, particularly with Kazakh athletes, while Hitech is not the only junior series team aiming to race in F1 as Indy Nxt team Andretti Autosport (which does compete at the top level in IndyCar) has also applied to join the grid in 2026.
Oakes only took back full ownership of Hitech GP early last year, as Bergton Management Limited previously owned 75%.
Uralkali, chaired by the father of Nikita Mazepin who raced for Hitech in FRegional, F3 and F2, was one of the three companies to have previously held majority shares in Hitech along with Fungosa Management Limited (which owns trademarks for Mazepin) and Bergton.
Kim explained his investment as: “Motorsport has been a long-standing personal interest for me, and I’m delighted to be entering into a partnership with an organisation that has enjoyed success in so many categories and has such ambitions for its future.
“We have an established involvement with sport; however, this is our first global investment in motorsport. Its dynamic appeal, growing exposure, business-to-business marketing opportunities and burgeoning fan base are aligned with my ambitions personally and commercially.”