The FIA's announcement this week that it has put forward Andretti Formula Racing to join the Formula 1 grid marked the end of a gruelling eight-month process.
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.
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. It was not a case of skimming the documents and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem picking the ones he liked the most.
Sources suggest Hitech was the closest to joining Andretti in going forward to the final stage. The British team has a successful record in single-seaters and a reasonable financing plan. However, what LKYSUNZ CEO Benjamin Durand could not sell convincingly was his concept of being able to participate competitively in F1 in sporting terms.
This was a move that the existing teams probably welcomed, but which did not go down well at all with the FIA. The Sulayem administration is said to have been offended by the impression that it was possibly giving away the slots to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, as it has subsequently confirmed, Rodin Carlin committed to putting a woman in one of its two cockpits as part of its diversity concept. Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick had even completed a test in a Rodin single-seater and was mentioned as its preferred candidate to get a shot at F1.While some applicants could not present a technical agreement with a partner team, Andretti had the official commitment of a new manufacturer: Cadillac and General Motors respectively.
However, while GM was absent from the FIA statement, the company's logos were still a key part of Andretti's own official press release responding to its application being successful. The important thing is that FOM, and its owners Liberty Media, are conducting the talks with Andretti all by themselves and must ultimately decide on the bid unilaterally.
But there are other opinions in the paddock about this being more than just a simple matter of how big the anti-dilution fee is.
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