According to reports over the weekend, Argentinean racer Jose Maria Lopez has verbally agreed to a deal that will see him race with the new USGP team in their debut season, the young driver needing to secure a certain amount of funding to bring with him in order to secure the seat.

According to his official website, the twenty six year old former Renault tester travelled to the United States in order to visit the teams facilities in Charlotte, North Carolina and touch base with team bosses Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor and the visit was extremely positive.

"The visit has been highly positive, we just need to complete some economic supports that are already committed," he said. "Until now, all the contacts had been by telephone, but given the advanced negotiations, we went there to visit the team headquarters and talk with Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson. We have a verbal agreement that will be completed next week."

"It is a new team, starting from scratch, something different from what I experienced in Renault, where the structure had many years of experience. But I was impressed by the commitment and professionalism they put in this project. I have visited the facilities where there is a wind tunnel that is almost 1:1 scale, which is very important to develop the car I will be able to driving in 2010."

Now he just needs to get the rest of his sponsorship in place in order to complete the move .