Lotus F1 to Partner Toyota in 2011?

The Singapore Grand Prix this year will be the scene of some interesting announcements inside Formula One, most of which will be coming from Lotus F1 Team. In fact, it was actually the Malaysian-backed team that confirmed it, saying that “a number of very exciting announcements” will be made two weekends from now.

Of course, we already have a clue about some of those announcements: the fact that the team will change its official designation and take on the historic Team Lotus moniker for 2011 and beyond, and the fact that both its current drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will be confirmed for the 2011 season.

However, the last – and most certainly not least – piece of information coming from the Lotus side regards a potential partnership with defunct Toyota. Lotus recently announced that their engine partnership with Cosworth will be terminated at the end of this season, and everybody jumped to the conclusion that the Norfolk based team will switch to Renault power for 2011.

According to Italian magazine Autosprint however, it seems that Lotus and Toyota are set to collaborate starting next season, being that the former's current technical director Mike Gascoyne used to work at Toyota's F1 programme in the past. Additionally, another member of the defunct Toyota F1 Racing team, Dieter Gass, is now a sporting director for the same Lotus.

Several rumors in the past have hinted that Toyota would sign a technical agreement with HRT F1, but no official confirmation from either of the two parties was made until now.

“We have to do something different and it will be done soon. Lots of negotiations have gone on over the last couple of weeks and we're very happy with the outcome,” Lotus' team principal Tony Fernandes told the BBC during last weekend's Italian GP.