Jordan Close to Toyota Engine Deal

Jordan are homing in on an engine deal with Toyota that would secure their Formula One survival, the team said on Thursday.

"We are very close but there's still quite a lot of paperwork to do and stuff like that," Ian Phillips, the team's director of business affairs, told Reuters.

"It's going to be a couple of weeks before it's all absolutely certain," he added. "But we are very, very hopeful now that we've got the elements in place."

The deadline for teams to enter for the 2005 Championship is on November 15 and Jordan have been racing against time to secure an engine deal by then.

The Silverstone-based team, founded by Irish entrepreneur Eddie Jordan, have been in Formula One since 1991 but were left scrambling around for an engine after Ford announced they were pulling out of the sport.

Jordan were powered by Ford-owned Cosworth this year and had been expecting to continue with them in 2005. Although Cosworth have made an offer to supply Jordan in 2005, even though the company has yet to be sold, their price has risen.

Toyota, who entered F1 as a team in 2002, said at the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend that they could still provide another team now that engine regulations for 2005 and 2006 had been laid out but that they would need ideally to make a decision by the end of the week.

"Because there seems to be a crisis for supply, we are, I think, prepared to do it," said Toyota motorsport president John Howett.

The Guardian newspaper suggested on Thursday that a Toyota deal could involve the Germany-based team's 23-year-old Australian test driver Ryan Briscoe driving for Jordan next year.

Of the other teams facing an uncertain future, Ford-owned Jaguar have yet to find a buyer and are running out of time while Minardi agreed a new deal with Cosworth before Ford announced their decision.

Minardi have said they could always fall back on their outmoded engines from several years ago if they had to but Australian owner Paul Stoddart sounded optimistic in Brazil that he would not need to.