Quantam Motorsport chief Mansoor Ijaz has confirmed that the deal with Lotus has not fallen through.

Ijaz went so far as to say that there is “zero chance” of the deal not happening. Quantam Motorsport (formerly Infinity) is aiming to secure a 35 per cent stake in the Lotus F1 Team. “There is no question about the fact that the deal will take place and there is no question that the monies have been debited from our side of the balance sheet,” he said. “There is zero chance that this deal will not happen. But it is important to understand that in the international banking system, when monies come from certain parts of the world, the correspondent banks have to be used. We also have to deal with the regulatory authorities like central banks and other institutional frameworks that do their checks as well, because we are not talking about transferring small amounts of money. When you transfer $1 million, it is a different compliance level to transferring $10 million to transferring $100 million. We are talking about transferring very substantial amounts of money to the company,” said Ijaz.

Lotus team Principal Eric Boullier had said earlier that “time was getting short” to make the deal with Quantam; no doubt referring to the fact that Lotus choice of second driver between Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado depends on it.

However, Ijaz has assured the team that it would be worth the wait. “It will compensate them for the loss of time and frustration, and different problems that they have all faced,” he said.

Reports are that Maldonado has already been signed to the second Lotus seat thanks to his sizeable check from PDVSA.