(Motorsports news) Despite the fact that the FIA has given Andretti Formula the green light to join the Formula 1 grid, its entry is far from inevitable. The crucial element today is that it must reach an agreement with FOM on commercial terms before being formally allocated a slot. This demand for a commercial agreement is one of the two papers (one regulatory/governance, the other financial) that are part of the existing Concorde Agreement – the treaty that governs how F1 is managed from 2021 to 2025.

Previously, teams could compete in F1 without a commercial arrangement in place – they just didn’t collect any prize money – but there is now a clear provision that no outfit gets on the grid unless it has a financial deal sorted out with FOM. This implies that Andretti’s destiny is very much in the hands of FOM, which is said to be opposed to the concept of an 11th team joining F1 right now.

In terms of where we go from here, FOM wants to spend some time analyzing the costs/benefits of having an extra team on the grid before deciding whether or not to sign a deal with Andretti. This applies not only to the financial burden that existing teams would incur by splitting their prize fund 11 times rather than 10, but also to the championship’s overall costs whis has to be shared with Andretti if it comes in the ferme parc grid.

F1 circuits have grown accustomed to fielding ten teams, and not all (it is estimated that less than half) are currently equipped with garage, paddock, and Paddock Club facilities for an 11th contender. Expanding the facilities (even though it is theoretically necessary under laws that enable up to 12 teams) comes at a cost – and the millions of dollars that could be spent are all money that would come out of the prize pool that is shared among teams.

FOM is not in a rush to complete its analysis, and it is likely that we will not know until the beginning of next year whether its view is that F1 benefits from an 11th team, or that it has determined that now is not the time for it to happen. With such a short timescale, it is nearly impossible for Andretti to compete in 2025, despite the fact that it has began staffing and developing its car design.

Any negative call by FOM for 2025 would, in theory, be applicable for the near future as well, because there are unlikely to be conditions that would force it to change its opinion.

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