Andretti has released a new statement two days on from F1’s commercial rights holder officially denying it a place on the F1 grid for 2025 or 2026, a decision that only came months after the FIA green-lit its application from its side.

It targets both the notion Andretti was still considering a 2025 entry - which F1 implied was too ambitious for it to be competitive - and that it had avoided a meeting with F1 management.

Andretti also claims F1’s offer of a meeting went to its email spam folder, according to the Associated Press.

But beyond ignored emails and spam filters, the other point Andretti has raised is massive - that it is preparing for 2026, not 2025.  If that is the case then it is strange that it did not come up in the information exchanged with F1 about its application. Clearly F1 worked on the firm belief/expectation that Andretti only had eyes on 2025 as that’s what key parts of its rejection are built around.