Force India is in talks with Aston Martin and Johnnie Walker about rebranding its team next year.
Speculation about a potential deal first emerged at the British Grand Prix when Aston Martin was also linked to Red Bull, but team boss Vijay Mallya insists talks have progressed substantially since then. If a deal is agreed, the team would drop the Force India name it has run under since 2008 and use both Aston Martin and the whisky brand Johnnie Walker in its official entry to the F1 world championship.
Speaking in Mexico, Mallya made clear that a deal is not yet done but revealed there is interest on all sides to make it happen.
"Yes, there are discussions going on with Aston Martin," he told Reuters. "Yes, there is excitement on both sides, but it still has to go through due process before we agree and shake hands on a concept, whatever that concept may be. We have not exchanged anything in terms of an outline or draft contracts.
"This is a sort of tri-partite discussion that is going on which involves Diageo with its Johnnie Walker brand as well."
Mallya said the plan was to continue running the team under the Indian flag and confirmed he has no reservations about dropping the Force India name.
"I named the team Force India only to give India and all of the motorsport fans in my country pride of place on a Formula One grid," he added. "But they've enjoyed that for eight years and now they know this team is synonymous and will still be an entry from India flying the Indian flag. So what name we run under is not as critically important as it was for the first three or four years."