And while there remain some big challenges ahead, because Andretti still needs to agree a commercial deal with FOM to be allowed to race, it is the closest F1 has had to a new team entrant for a while.
As Autosport's sister site Motorsport-Total.com revealed over the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, Andretti was the last team standing after just four candidates had made it through to the second stage of the FIA's process of evaluating interested parties.
Three bids - Hitech, LKYSUNZ and Rodin Carlin – were then duly informed that they had not been good enough to be taken any further forward.
However, the process that was kicked off in early February by the FIA to invite expressions of interest from candidates actually drew responses from seven teams.
In addition to the four who made the second stage, it is understood that there were three other parties – one from Hong Kong businessman Calvin Lo, former BAR co-owner Craig Pollock's Formula Equal idea, plus the South Korean project Panthera.
For this first round of proceedings, the seven projects had to submit what was termed a "preliminary expression of interest."
This required an application fee in the amount of 20,000 US dollars, which all seven paid.
In this first round, applicants had to submit, among other things, "the identity of all shareholders and the ultimate beneficial owner of all shares" and "curriculum vitae for each director and officer of the candidate entity".
The FIA reviewed the documents submitted and sent all seven applicants a formal response requesting further information in the form of a detailed questionnaire.
Those who wanted to remain in the process had to transfer another $280,000 at that point. This is when Calvin Lo, Craig Pollock and Panthera bowed out of the process.
Source: Autosport