Despite Andretti Formula having been given the seal of approval by the FIA to join the Formula 1 grid, its entrance to the series is still far from guaranteed.
The key factor now is that it must agree commercial terms with FOM before it will officially be granted a slot.
This demand for there to be a commercial deal in place forms part of the two documents (one regulatory/governance, the other financial) that come under the auspices of the current Concorde Agreement – the document that dictates how F1 is run from 2021 to 2025.
PLUS: How F1's new team conservatism has already seen off one credible bid
Whereas under previous Concorde Agreements teams could race in F1 without a commercial deal in place – they just would not receive any prize money – there is now a specific stipulation that means no outfit gets on the grid unless it has a financial deal sorted with FOM.
This means Andretti’s fate is very much in the hands of FOM, which is understood to be lukewarm to the idea of having an 11th team join F1 right now.
In terms of where we go from here, FOM wants to spend some time digging into a costs/benefits analysis of what it means to have an extra team on the grid before it makes its call on whether or not it wants to do a deal with Andretti.
This counts not only for the financial impact that current teams would face in sharing their prize pot 11 times rather than 10 but also in terms of wider costs on the championship.
Source: Autosport