Andretti Global and General Motors which announced on Thursday a joint venture to enter a team in F1 under the Cadillac brand already have a conditional agreement in place with a power unit supplier.
The Andretti Cadillac Racing entity will submit its candidacy as part of the FIA's expected 'Expressions of Interest' process by which the governing body will gauge the interest and validity of potential new F1 teams.
GM president Mark Reuss alluded to an agreement with a third party power unit supplier but hinted at GM bringing its "expertise" to the prospective F1 team in the future.
"We have a signed agreement with a power unit supplier to begin with and then as we move forward, we bring a lot of our expertise to create things for the future as well," Reuss said on Thursday.
"It would be more a collaboration with another manufacturer," added Michael Andretti.
Given Andretti's previous agreement with Renault to use its engines when the US outfit ambitioned to join the grid on its own, the French manufacturer is suspected to be the new entity's partner of choice.
BUT GM also has a working relationship with Honda – its rival engine supplier in IndyCar – in the EV arena. But that does not imply a tie-up for F1 for the two manufacturers insisted Reuss.
"On the EV part of it we do have a larger partnership with Honda but also compete against them in series like IndyCar as well, so we have that natural respect and relationship which is not problematic at all.
"We’ll talk about the engine piece of this at a later date."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter