Former USF1 driver Jose Maria Lopez is expected to join Bruno Senna at Campos Meta in a deal that could be announced as soon as Friday.

Lopez and his advisor Felipe McGough spent a second day with Bernie Ecclestone at the Formula One Management offices in London today, as the F1 boss tried to sort out the deal. It seems that negotiations have reached a conclusion, with a report in Argentina suggesting that the deal has been concluded in principle.

If confirmed the deal will likely see original Campos investor Jose Ramon Carabante taking charge, with former Midland/Spyker/Force India boss Colin Kolles putting a team together to run the Dallara-Cosworths.

Kolles operates DTM and LMS teams in Europe, and can thus provide logistical support fairly quickly. Former BAR and Red Bull technical chief Geoff Willis is also involved. It seems likely that there will be no role for team founder Adrian Campos.

Although he would not be drawn on any details, Kolles told this writer tonight that an announcement could come soon.

Chad Hurley is still in the loop, although it‘s not yet clear whether the YouTube founder is bringing some much need financial support to the Campos project, having walked away from US F1. His advisor Parris Mullins has also been in London and has been in contact with Lopez and Carabante.

Lopez was told by Peter Windsor earlier this week that USF1 would not make the first race in Bahrain. Having made commitments to his sponsors he immediately began looking for an alternative, and traveled to Europe with his father, TV executive McGough, and his touring car team boss, former F3 driver Victor Rosso.

A close associate of Lopez told us earlier today: “USF1 hadn’t finished the car and we had promised everyone that we would be in the first race in Bahrain. That’s why Felipe decided to reorganize everything, because we can’t miss Bahrain. The only thing we want is that ‘Pechito’ drives in F1. Everything else is not important for us.”