And it didn't come easy for his management team to get him that racing spot, as the deal was secured and backed by the very government of Argentina – a country that has recently gone through a severe economic crisis about a decade back.
However, although the deal was signed in the presence of President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, it was the representatives of the American team that didn't hold their promise in the end, as they were unable to secure a fell-funded F1 team for the upcoming season. Under the circumstances, Lopez's managers started chasing a free spot in the series immediately, but the best thing they came up with was a reserve role with Hispania Racing – former Campos Meta – due to be announced tomorrow morning.
Speaking about how things turned out in the end, Lopez's manager Felipe McGough did not hesitate one bit when pointing fingers at Ken Anderson – part developer of the US F1 project – for the failure of the American Dream and, consequently, his client's.
“The main culprit of all this is Ken Anderson. These people fooled the FIA, FOTA and all the teams, FOM, all the employees they hired, 'Pechito' Lopez, and Milos Pavlovic, the other driver they had signed to be in the project,” said McGough in an interview with Argentina's Corsa magazine.
“It's not that they fooled us only. The situation of US F1 in Europe is some sort of scandal amongst teams because it makes F1 looks very bad. Argentina is just a small part of the problem, but it's a very, very big for Formula 1.”
“We finally managed to get released from the contract with the US F1 team. It was a very complex situation because they had not breached the contract, but we knew they would not make it to Bahrain. So we had to find a solution so Jose Maria would not be tied to the team and he could find an alternative,” added McGough.
Lopez is to be confirmed Hispania Racing's new reserve driver for the 2010 season of Formula One, a position where he will be joined by GP2 driver Pastor Maldonado.
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