US F1 set to announce Lopez
Team US F1 is set to announce Jose Maria Lopez as its first driver for its maiden Formula 1 campaign at a press event in Argentina on Monday
Lopez, a former Renault test driver, revealed several months ago that he had secured a US F1 seat provided he found the necessary funding. The 26-year-old's spokesman Miguel Mattos confirmed to Reuters that the deal was now complete.
"Everything has been agreed and the official announcement will be made on Monday," Mattos told the news agency.
AUTOSPORT understands that grand prix winner Carlos Reutemann, a close friend of US F1 boss Peter Windsor and now a leading politician in Argentina, has been instrumental in putting the funding package together for Lopez, who will receive a degree of government backing alongside other Argentinian sponsors.
Once part of Renault's driver development programme, Lopez raced in Formula 3000 and GP2 between 2004 and 2006, taking a victory for DAMS at Catalunya in 2005.
He subsequently returned to race in Argentina, and has just claimed back to back titles in the domestic TC2000 series as well as winning last year's TopRace V6 championship and finishing as runner-up in the Turismo Carretera series. Lopez also had a handful of races in Europe in 2008 as part of the ACA Argentina Ferrari project in the FIA GT Championship.
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