Hispania Racing chief Jose Ramon Carabante has all-but confirmed the details of his teams link-up with the former Toyota Formula One team for the 2011 season, with the deal set to "strengthen" the backmarking team's position on the grid.
HRT have struggled their way through a dismal debut season at the back of the grid, and have faced constant rumours suggesting a lack of funds, rumours backed up by the recent bout of seat-swapping the team has employed at race weekends.
They only made it to the 2010 grid after a last-minute buyout by Carabante, who took over ownership of the team from Adrian Campos.
The team has suffered from a lack of development of their Dallara-designed F110 car, and shortly after the start of the season they split from the Italian constructor, ending their technical link-up.
Since then, the team has been searching for a new technical partnership, and have recently been linked with a deal to use the old Toyota headquarters in Cologne, as well as their unraced TF110 chassis design, which was to be the Japanese team's 2010 car before they pulled out of the sport.
Team boss Colin Kolles confirmed that the team was talking to Toyota at the Hockenheim race weekend, saying that: "Toyota is an option, I think it might be good for us."
And now Carabante has confirmed that a deal is near with the Spanish news agency EFE, the businessman being quoted as confirming that although a Toyota link-up was near, the team would remain based in the Murcia region of Spain "because the project was born here".
The report suggests the deal will be worth some 15 million Euros, and will include the use of the ex-Toyota HQ, as well as the wind tunnel and technical staff.
Carabante added that the deal "will strengthen Hispania in the battle to be the best of the new teams, which is our first goal."
The report from EFE confirmed that the technical contract would initially be for the 2011 and 2012 Formula One seasons.
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