FIA chief Mohammed Ben Sulayem is adamant Formula One should be "encouraging" companies like General Motors to enter the sport.

Andretti, partnering with GM brand Cadillac, expressed intentions last week to join the F1 grid, though their announcement was met with a lukewarm response from within the sport.

It has been reported there is concern whether Andretti would "add value" to F1, particularly given the team's desire to base themselves in the United States and not in Europe, where the rest of the sport is homed.

Previous failures of Toyota and Jaguar in the 2000s serve as evidence of the difficulties in meeting the demands of F1, particularly as, at least initially, the Andretti/Cadillac name would be merely added to a Renault engine.

Additions of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are seen as a more tangible prospect for an F1 expansion, though Ben Sulayem feels F1 should not be shutting the door to alternative approaches.

"Today there are two sides of sustainability. There is sustainability of the environment, and there is sustainability of the sport," he told reporters at the Dakar Rally.

"If you want to sustain the sport, you have to open it to the rest of the manufacturers. And to us, we are allowed to have 12 teams on the grid.

"To have a big company like GM, which is one of the top five in the world, we should be encouraging them to come to Formula 1. That is the way I would like to see the future: having an OEM in with sustainability.

"Every single partner there [in F1], or stakeholder there, should be welcoming an OEM, especially from America. You have three races there [in the United States], and we don't have maybe a racer, a driver, and for sure we don't have an OEM.

"I welcome anyone to fill up the 12 [spots], but proper teams. We have accepted good teams but also smaller teams, like Haas and Sauber. I hope that this will change, and we will be able to have a proper team on the grid. It will be odd [to be] at 11, and not 10 or 12. But we'll see."

However, despite already publicly hitting out at the "adverse reaction" to Andretti's proposed entry, Ben Sulayem made it clear he is not yet at a stage where he is ready to fully approve the proposals.

"There is the due diligence. There is a process, we wait, and it goes. As an FIA or a president, I didn't say yes [we approved it]: we opened it. So let them see," he added.

"Are they going to succeed? Will they tick the boxes? Will they be able to be there? We cannot just go and rely on what's going on, we have to look for the future."

The Andretti Global team have announced plans to enter Formula One, joining forces with General Motors and the Cadillac brand.

Andretti is a name steeped in F1 history, with Mario Andretti winning the 1978 world title and his son, Michael, also a former driver on the grid.

Thursday's announcement by the American set-up follows FIA chairman Mohammed Ben Sulayem stating this week he intends to launch a formal process for expressions of interest for prospective new F1 teams.

That has opened the door for Andretti's plans, with Andretti Global chairman Michael Andretti saying in a joint statement: "I feel that we are well suited to be a new team for Formula One and can bring value to the series and our partners, and excitement for the fans.

"I'm proud to have GM and Cadillac alongside us as we pursue this goal. GM and Andretti share a legacy born out of the love of racing.

"We now have the opportunity to combine our motorsport passions and dedication to innovation to build a true American F1 bid."

However, any new additions to the grid require the approval of F1, and it has been reported there is no prospect of a new team joining before 2026.

Andretti failed with a previous attempt to enter F1, with a 2021 bid to buy Sauber, but there remains an eagerness to join the grid for the next era of the sport – which is set to undergo significant changes in 2026.

Formula One is introducing a new engine formula that year, significantly increasing the power produced by the electrical part of hybrid engines and using synthetic, fully sustainable fuels – and there is already one new team set to join in 2026, following Audi's purchase of the Alfa Romero/Sauber team.

With Audi taking over an existing team, their transition onto the grid is far less complicated than the scenario for Andretti, who would require an expansion and would have to front a reported $200m fee that would be split among existing teams to offset any loss of prize money due to another team joining the revenue share.

F1 has had 10 teams on the grid since the 2015 season and issued a statement in response to Andretti's interest, which read: "There is great interest in the F1 project at this time, with a number of conversations continuing that are not as visible as others.

"We all want to ensure the championship remains credible and stable and any new entrant request will be assessed on criteria to meet those objectives by all the relevant stakeholders."